Bleu Leather
by Megamindluv4918
Summary: AU/ A tale of love in Paris... with a twist! How could this much be discovered by a simple trip to Europe? Mages? Long-lost family? All-powerful villains set out to destroy a certain heroe's perfect life... and the world itself? By joining the Rebels, Megs hopes to stop the evil... but can he survive the penultimate madness that comes on a side order? CORRECTED CHAPTER 6.
1. Chapter 1

Well, this was the cruddiest chapter of all, so I basically rewrote it to attract more people. I will go through every chapter to fix little nuances, don't worry. I will make this better, DANG IT! I want more readers... and now, HAVE A BETTER CHAPTER ONE!

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><p><em>So here we enter. The saga begins. <em>

_A tale of love. A heart to win. _

_Reporter and alien besotted with one another _

_Reporter a human. Alien with no mother. _

_But how he wants to prove that love _

_Could appear to be quite harmless _

_At first glance. _

_Then he and she were under harness. _

_An evil villain in the depths of Paris _

_World conquest in mind, not to embarrass. _

_Darkness. Loss. Sisters. Romance. _

_A thousand corpses to necromance _

_But I'm afriad I may delve in too deep _

_Enjoy this while it lasts… before defeat._

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><p>She lay down in the park, next to musky leather, staring at the stars that had been dotted with sparks of color and explosions and pop and bangs not too long ago. Fireworks in the park. Wonderful date choice.<p>

Megamind was the source of that musky leather smell. He had taken her there, insisting on making the picninc dinner in addition, and what do you know? It turned out splendid.

Megamind sighed despite this.. Since the defeat of Titan mere weeks ago, she had appealed to him as infinitely more than a friend. For a long time he had had a thing for that sassy reporter, able to persuade even unconcsiously when she was only talking. He was attracted to her as a villain, and even more so now that she had accepted him into her life, and agreed to date.

He rolled his head over to face Roxanne. He saw the silvery, peppery stars reflected in her icy blue eyes, which made it even more difficult to say what he was about to say.

"Roxanne?" Megamind said her name, and then looked down, then back at her again. "I want to tell you, um…well, I…um…I love y—the weather tonight! Very nice…" Megamind fumbled. He turned his head away from Roxanne and pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. No matter how hard he tried, he could never just say _it._ This had happened too many times.

Roxanne looked confused, and then she turned her head back up and looked blankly at the sky shimmering with what was like gleaming glitter someone had spilled on a black, silken sheet.

Megamind stared up at the sky too, hoping that he could work up the courage to say that he loved her at some point. As easy a task as that sounded, it was harder when he attempted to actually do it.

The unlikely couple gazed at the neverending blackness studded with rhinestones. After a while, Roxanne moved her arm, very slowly, to grasp Megamind's gloved hand laying languidly on the blanket beside her. Theor fingers entwined. If someone had told him long ago that Roxanne Ritchi would willingly hold hands with him, he'd never believe them. Now it seemed more possible, and intimidating than it would have appeared in the past.

His hand closed a bit more tightly around hers, as if to tell her he never really wanted to let go.

Then they turned to face each other again. Where the stars or her eyes just more intense? Something… about them tended to put his mind in this strange trance he couldn't get out of on most occasions.

Once again, he had gotten lovestruck by her radiance. He really couldn't help it. He involuntarily leaned in to kiss her.

"What are you doing? Megamind?" Roxanne asked. Megamind opened his eyes and found himself with his nose touching Roxanne's. He quickly drew back, embarrassed. That was the third time he'd done thatsince they started awkward, to say the least. She might not be ready just yet. How much longer would he have to wait?

Megamind flashed a brilliant smile at Roxanne to make up for it. He was known for that, and he knew she couldn't resist those classic grins. Megamind gave her hand another happy squeeze. Roxanne laughed happily. "Megamind, I've wondered for the longest time how your smile is so impossibly white." Roxanne said.

"Toothpaste does the trick, really. If you throw out about a brush a month."

There. Much better. Things were slightly less tense. Roxanne smiled again. Then she rolled onto her back, turned her head away, and stifled a yawn. She looked back at Megamind and said, "I'm tired. I should get going." The past night had made her a bit more sleepy than usual. Maybe because the firewokrs and the relaxation helped her unwind from a particularly strenuous day at the news station where she worked.

"Yeah…me too", Megamind agreed. They both stood up, and Megamind folded up the blanket they had been lounging on, laying it across his gloved arm."I… can walk you home if you want."

"Aw, that's fine, I can manage", she said politely. Megamind nodded. "So, see you tomorrow, maybe?" He asked eagerly. Even in this darkness she could see the hopeful, childlike gleam in his eyes of poison green. Roxanne shrugged.

"Probably" she considered. "See you later."

"Bye", Megamind said. He stayed standing for a few seconds to watch Roxanne walk back home, down the dark sidewalk, into the night. He watched her until she became a moving patch of blackness, and then he walked back to his Lair, listening to crickets chirp and the cool air on his face.

He looked down at the pavement, feeling a little discouraged and a bit scared. The words couldn't yet be formed out of his mouth. Not a simple, _I love you_. He felt like saying it to her, since those words spoke the truth, but he felt something… he felt like she deserved more.

After all, who else would date a big-headed alien like himself? He… fancied her for even considering the action.

He knew how different he was.

Just as a spark nearly lit itself in his brain, He looked up from the nearly bare sidewalks to see something flash before his eyes, like a shadow. Not a person. Something else.

Curious. When he rubbed his eyes it was gone.

"Do fireworks really have that effect on my vision?" he wondered sloud to himself. He shook his head, thinking about sleep as he kept on trudging home, lugging the blanket with him.

He entered his dark warehouse, the door squeaking open loudly, and a certain icthyoid immediately rushing up to greet his master.

"Hey, you're back."

Megamind smiled tiredly and yawned. He handed Minion the blankets he had been carrying without a word except a simple, "Hello."

Then he was forced to say more than that.

"Sir, this is the twentieth date you've had with her. Have you at least told her that you love her?"

Megamind stopped dead in his tracks. He'd hoped to avoid the question. He couldn't just walk away now.

"O-of course!" he lied.

He whirled around with a nervous grin that almost immdiately diminished when he saw Minion's face, completely disbelieving.

"Don't lie to me, Sir. What's keeping you from saying three simple words?"

"Minion, you don't understand, I—"

"Just tell me!"

Megamind sighed and sat down on the floor, crossing his knees together and resting his pointy chin in his hands. He glanced up at his friend towering over him in his robot-gorilla suit, looking so intimidating and parental from that point of view.

"It's really not that easy to say."

"In what way?"

"Well… it's Roxanne. Roxanne Ritchi, whom I've kidnapped for years on end, and now suddenly, _boom!_ We're dating. It's been a few months since Titan. I should be able to say it, but…" "But what?" Minion tried to get an answer out of him by dropping his tone to a more sympathetic one.

"But, it's really a large task. When I say it, I have to mean it thoroughly, and my tone must be in earnest. I'm just…. concerned that it won't end up being said the right way—"

"You're worried she'll reject you?" Minion guessed softly.

Megamind opened his mouth to add something, but slumped and mumbled, "Yes…"

"Oh Sir, stand up", Minion said as he lifted his master's skinny form from the ground. It was amazing how boisterous and eccentric he could be most of the time, and even occasionally a braggart, but then when they were alone together, or he was alone alone, he was insecure and shy and self-conscious of what other people thought of him. "If it's any consolation, I think the _statistical_ probability of her turning you away are point five percent. See? Not even one percent. Plus, I can tell from time that you two are very in love."

"Then why haven't we even kissed yet?" Megamind wondered out loud, turning depressed again. Each time they had tried, something had caught them off guard, causing the moment to be crushed. Something always happened. It was annoying.

"Well, that, Sir, I'm not sure I can answer. Sure, you have _tried_, but… something weird always happens when you do, and I can't pinpoint why, or how, or even the irony. Maybe you just need to be alone for a while before it works."

Even though Megamind was feeling very bummed, another puzzle piece had just been clicked in place inside his head by Minion. Solitude. Proof of love.

Considering the mastermind's wily and showy ways, he was planning something big.

Suddenly he forgot about his downcast feeling and began to think. All the gears in his head where working… and…

"I know", he exclaimed. "I think… I think I need to take her somewhere… where we can be alone!"

It sounded less blatant in his head. Minion looked a it confused.

"I mean… I also need to prove my love for her. I really want to. And she deserves the best, in my eyes. The only thign is, I don't exactly know where to take her that will impress her."

"The expensive restaurant uptown?" Minion suggested. "The one people always go to at Christmastime. It's fairly quiet… and spacious."

Megamind thought for a moment. "Nope. Something bigger."

"Something out of town?"

"Maybe even more!" he said with a cocky grin. Minion sighed a sigh that said, _what am I going to do with you?_ And his fins fluttered a bit.

"What exactly did you have in mind?"

Megamind took a breath in as if he were about to say something, but then let it out like a balloon. "I… don't know, actually." He yawned. "But I'm tired anyway, so I'll sleep on it. On the couch."

"Sir, you never listen when I tell you all the time, I think you need a proper bed."

"Don't be silly, Minion! The couch is a wonderful place. Goodnight to you."

And if he had a cape on, he'd swish it as he made his way out of the main entrance to the living quarters to prepare for bed. Minion wondered what he could possibly be brewing up in that genius mind of his as he turned around the opposite way to power down.

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><p>Roxanne woke in the middle of the night, her hair sticking out in all places. She dreaded looking at her digital clock, judging from how dark it was outside, but she looked anyway.<p>

1:34 AM. Peachy.

She slumped back under her covers and tried to sleep again, but after another half hour of trying, she gave up. She'd been wondering about something strange.

Little did she know Megamind thought about the same thing while laying half-off the couch cushions, battling insomnia. Why hadn't they kissed yet? Not even a peck on the lips. Only on the cheek, a few times.

And something else bugged Roxanne's thoughts in particular. What was he always trying to say each time they went out together? Started with "I love—" and then trailed off into something awkward, or he himself got interrupted.

They had been dating for a little more than two months. Roxanne was more than curious: she now knew.

He was trying to say that he loved her. There was no other explanation. And she wanted him to admit it, but when she really thought about it, she realized that he had a really hard time with that sort of thing. Most of it… probably had to do with his past.

Trusting people did not come easy for him. Not considering how he'd been abused in the past. And she could tell, he was warming up to her, but the 'I love you' part was the thing that was a challenge. Was he worried of rejection because he was an alien and she a human? Just… shy and unsure?

Roxanne had been trying to see past his evil persona for so long, she figured that had to be the exact case. Infact, she wanted to correct it. High time she did. She was in love with him, easy enough, even though complications were astounding considering now they were dating when they used to banter while one was tied up in a chair. A lot had happened to them in those two months.

Yep. He had to admit sometime soon. Roxanne would make sure of it.

Now if only sleep would come…

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><p>What did you think? Okay? I HOPE IT IS. Any new person who discovered this, don't go to chapter two until I make that better... and then next one... and the next one XD just wait, everyone...<p>

OKAY BYE I HAVE A LOT OF WORK TO DO /).-


	2. Chapter 2

OK, after a month sitting on my lazy BUTT, trying to PAY ATTENTION to this chapter, I FINALLY CORRECTED IT! AND IT STILL SUCKS IN MY EYES, BUT AT LEAST IT'S A LITTLE BETTER! JUST GIVE THE STORY A CHANCE, PLEEEASE? I spent ten months working on it. PLEASE?

Ok. Read what I revised.

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><p>Chapter 2<p>

After a week of trying and trying to think of what to do for Roxanne, he had a vague idea in his head, but he still needed to find out exactly where would be the best place to take her so that she'd be happy with it. He didn't want to decide and then find out that she hated where he took her, because then he'd never forgive himself for screwing up on something so was the utmost perfectionist. It needed to be exactly right for her.

And from those thoughts, he created a plan.

He called her in the late morning; a morning after a nice mocha latte from Starbucks and some donuts just how he liked it. He would casually ask questions that might reveal the best place Megamind could take her to show her that he loved her. Weird strategy, but he would have to try. Experiment. He iked experiments. This should be easy.

Megamind dialed Roxanne's number on his cell phone as he lounged sideways in his evil chair, feet danglif from one end and head hanging down from the other end so he could thik better. As the dial tone went off thrice, he briefly wondered if a lightbulb in the ceiling needed changing before Roxanne's voice came on.

"Hello?"

"Miss Ritchi! Ollo!"

"Hey, Megs. What's up?"

"Oh, nothing… I was just curious, uh, would you mind if I got reservations for two at that restaurant, what's it called? It just slipped my mind…"

"Yeah?"

"Reservations at Rillian for tonight. I know it's short notice, but… even though I'm a celebrity now, it's still pretty much impossible to get in. Are you up for it?"

Megamind thought she was going to decline, but she said, "Really? Wow. That's an impressive feat." She paused. "Yeah, I'm free, I'll be there. What time?"

"Five-thirty seems about right. I'll pick you up at your apartment?"

"Sure. Oh, and Megamind?"

"Uh huh?"

"Is there… anything else you want to tell me?" Roxanne tested to see if Megamind really did want to say that he loved her. Her voice had an expectant tone in it, a tone Megamind sensed immediately.

He froze. Did she know? Was she getting antsy?

"I don't think so", he croaked. He cleared his throat. He hoped Roxanne wouldn't think he was avoiding telling her something important. It just came out a little too shaky.

"Oh… ok", Roxanne said, hiding her disappointment. Maybe it was just the timing that was wrong. Maybe he was nervous. "I'll see you tonight, then."

"Can't wait," Megamind grinned.

"Sure. Bye."

"Bye."

Roxanne hung up. Megamind pocketed his Samsung phone. Now he had to come up with a strategy for finding out which place would suit Roxanne best to take her to. He'd take a simple pad and pen to record anything that seemed important. That seemed like a good method. And he would have to wear something more low-key than his regular suit that was adorned with spikes. He figured it was only good when he was saving people, and it was more costumey than casual or formal.

He thought a little more. Spikes… they were his style. A spiked collar wouldn't hurt, he was sure, and in fact it might look fetching.

That very night, He ended up wearing a white tailored shirt with the cuffs rolled halfway up his forearm. That, and black skinny jeans that hugged his legs perfectly with his regular boots that he had polished a bit, completed by a light mist of cologne; even some eyeliner.

Once he was all freshened up, he grabbed the keys to his car adorned with fins and spikes, and was about to enter the driver's seat when he heard the clanking of Minion's metallic feet approaching.

Megamind looked up and raised his eyebrows in greeting.

"Date? Or did you decide to admit to her?"

"Well… I'm doing this sort of experiment, really. Roxanne deserves the best, I think, and I haven't come up with a good place to take her yet." He looked at the notepad in his hands. "Is it normal to take notes on a date?"

Minion looked a bit confused. "Umm… well, Sir, if it's going to help you decide, then… I guess."

"Good. Thanks." He gave a quick smile of gratitude to his friend, and then hopped eagerly into his car to drive out the garage and to Roxanne's apartment complex.

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><p>By the exact time he got to the curb, that was when Roxanne strutted out the building, quickly to that faamiliar shimmer that caught her eyes out on the roadside that signified Megamind was there, on invisible mode. He rolled down thee window a bit.<p>

"Get in quick!" he whispered with urgency. "I don't exactly feel like signing autographs right now!"

Roxanne laughed through her nose, but reached for the elusive door handle and was in the passenger seat in one smooth move. Her outfit of choice for tonight was the blue dress with ruffles Megamind recognized on sight as the one she'd worn at his museum unveiling, and it was one of his favorites. Her heeled shoes were not too high, not too low, making her the same height as him, head and all. There were pearls earrings on her ears: champagne-colored ones that were large and round and polished so they gleamed. She looked stunning, and Megamind's voice was caught in his throat for a short moment.

After sharing a timid smile, Megamind drove off into a street where ferns and wildflowers grew on the curbside. There was suddenly a strange silence that had settled in the car; one that was slightly awkward and tight. He had nothing much to say. Judging from Roxanne's tone on the phone earlier, she would want him to confess his love, but… not until he had the plan clear in his head.

Even the littlest details mattered to him. What places had he observed that she liked from the time they had been together? Did foreign cuisine appeal to her? Foreign… anything?

He couldn't very well take his eyes off the road to scan her up and down, though. That was what the notepad was for.

After a few more minutes of slient, smooth driving, they pulled up to a parking lot outside a two-storied restaurant that was flanked with white gardenias in pots, and twisting up the thin pillars that held up the awning. A faint light came from the inside, illuminating the darkening, grey-blue sky above with the friendly glow that was tinged with some orange.

They walked inside, swinging the doors open, and were greeted by cool air and a quiet, relaxing atmosphere as it usually was. Nice. It smelled like wine and baguettes in there. Some people briefly stopped eating to stare, but thankfully not for long, knowing Megamind probably needed space if he was on a date.

After Megamind and Roxanne were shown to their table, and the waiter ran off to check on an order, they sat down, and Megamind silently slipped the pad from his pocket and placed it on his thigh. His pen quietly clicked open, and then he began talking.

"Those… shoes look quite fitting on you. Where'd you get them?"He questioned innocently.

"My shoes?" Roxanne repeated, glancing at her feet. "Imported from Paris. I splurge when I can." She fingered her earring. "These earrings are from there too, but do you really want to hear a rant about clothing? As soon as you started wearing normal clothes you complained about Minion putting every outfit together for you."

"Well, yes, he tends to be a mother fish when it comes to most things, including my normal wear. But imported clothing from Europe must have cost a fortune."

"Well, when you have money to spare from all that publicity with Metro Man, you've got to use it sometime. I can only imagine how hard it was to get a shirt that fits you like,"- She looked him up and down briefly, her breath catching a little at the tightness of the fabric.—"that. Does Minion tailor it for you? Or do you shop in the boy's department?"

Megamind went a little purple at the last sentence, but laughed a bit to compensate, and said, "Yes, as a matter of fact. But he takes even longer than on my costumes; ironic, I know. He always wants me to make a good impression wearing this clothing, since I've never before."

Roxanne nodded slowly. For years she'd never seen him in anything but rubber and leather and latex, and once his biohazard pajamas one awkward evening when Megamind had felt and evil plan coming on at midnight. Minion cared about how his master went about and how he was dressed, whether he was caped or jeaned or vested or belted.

"So… speaking of Parisian fashion, guess what happened yesterday?"

"Hmm?"

"Paparazzi attacked me!"

"How is that related to—"

Megamind was just desperate to collect more information. He had to. As much as he could. Even if that meant going off into these unrelated tangents which was not very abnormal for him, but did get a little weird. Plus, what had happened to him the other day was worth telling.

"Minion and I were just making a few routes out, collecting spare parts, but what was unusual was that paparazzi suddenly decided to rush up to us and get pictures when they had kept their distance the rest of the time before, and it was such an inconvenient time for them to show up, that I whipped out my De-Gun and said, "Stay back or there will be a few dozen blue cubes surrounding me in the next second!"

Roxanne forgot all about the subject change and laughed when he spastically waved a gun made of his fingers up in the air to imitate the moment. "Then I shot a beam of energy into the air to try and scare them off, but then a cube landed at my feet a few moments later when I had just expected it to shoot right into space and not come back. After Minion had stopped laughing to himself when we slipped into the car, he said I'd hit a crow. Laughable, is it not?" After he had spoken his story, he blushed a little and gave a smile that stretched out just a little too much. That…was idiotic.

"Um… yeah! Sure!" Roxanne allowed, and gave a small chuckle to make up for it. He was acting… strange all of a sudden. His face was tight like he had just acknowledged the stupidity of how he had told the small story. He was acting like all the times he'd tried to…

Hmm.

"Papparazzi suck, don't they?" Roxanne suggested, smirking a bit. Megamind nodded enthusiastically. He hated them with a passion. He jotted thast down for no apparent reason.

They talked about other minor things as well, and gradually Megamind's notepad filled with these short annotations he'd smartly and casually gathered during that time, and pretty soon their food was served after they had ordered shortly before. Just in case, Megamind observed what was on her plate in case it would help with his notes…

French Ravioli. And she was even drinking French wine. He was vaguely aware of her saying something to him as these little puzzle pieces all began to gather themselves in his thoughts until he had an obvious idea screaming to be written down before it was dismissed. Paris was ideal, no doubt about it. The more he considerd it, the better it sounded. If it would make her happy, it would make him happy. And… with all this work, they both needed vacations. He spotted some fairly free time ahead of him, so why not? Maybe just for a week? That would certainly be enough.

And about telling Minion… he guessed he'd be fine with it, but with the time he'd been spending with Roxanne, he needed attention as well before his master just went out of the country for seven days. Now what to do about that…

"Megamind?" Roxanne snapped him out of his pondering. "You…didn't seem terribly focused on what I just said. I asked you if you want to do anything on my week off at the news station", she said.

_Whoa_, he thought. _Luck just strides right in at the best times for me._

"Oh, of course! Actually, I was just thinking about something you'll rather enjoy!" he hinted.

"And what might that be?"

"Something. Something you won't coax from me no matter how your wily reporter ways may tempt."

Roxanne raised an eyebrow, almost challenging him. "Oh, really?" She took a quick sip of wine.

"Yes, really. Don't try. You'll know soon enough." He wrote it down, setting the thought in stone. Paris was the ultimate choice.

He froze when Roxanne asked him, "Megs, are you… writing something?"

Dang. He instinctively tossed his notepad on the carpeted ground to make up a fib. "No… um, my notepad just fell out of my pocket, I think I'll go under and get it now!" He descended to the floor and snatched the pad up, placing it hastily in his shirt pocket to face a suspicious Roxanne. He didn't like that look. She was on to him.

"So it fell out of that shirt pocket that was empty before."

"Roxanne, don't be silly, I have—"

"Megamind, your jeans _have no_ pockets."

Right. He forgot about that.

"Writing at the table? Let me see that." She held her hand out to him with a dissaproving look. For a minute, he thought he was cornered, but… ah. He had the perfect alibi.

"Well, uh, no, because… you know how I am. I need to get this stuff out of my head, see, and I was just jotting down concepts for some sort of new contraption I've been thinking about. Nothing much."

"Well, I'd love to hear about it if it's not too terribly secret." She leaned over the table, attentive and with a small grin on her face. At first, Megamind hesitated, then adjusted his spike collar and grinned smugly to himself. It wouldn't be a total lie, since he did have a prototype in the works now at the top of the Lair, where the fake observatory was.

They sat there for a long while, conversing comfortably and eating dessert as they did so. Megamind felt carefree and content as he ate his bowl of chocolate ice cream.

Paris. He had to keep that in mind.

* * *

><p>He pulled up at the curb outside of her apartment when the sky was dark, and the lights in the city were shining bright and strong as they ever did. They'd ended up talking long after evening and into late night when the restaurant had been clearing up. That usually happened, not that Megamind had anything to complain about it.<p>

Before Roxanne climbed out of his car, he felt a slight warmth press against his shoulder tenderly, making a little sprig of lavender color pop up on his thin cheekbones. There was a pressure of lips on his cheek and a slight smacking sound as they parted from him. When he turned his gaze around, he found a smiling face with ravishing blue eyes staring right back, but with an inquisitive glint he knew, which confused him.

"Good night."

"Good night, Miss Ritchi. Sleep well,"Megamind said back, wishing he could kiss her lips. But she threw a last slightly tired but sweet look over her shoulder as she quickly climbed out of the car, slammed the heavy door closed, and strode back inside her building and in the elevator up to her apartment.

Megamind drove off, stroking his cheek once with his finger. Along the way, he was aware of the pad of paper in his pocket resting against his chest that had all his little notes it a neat order on it. He really was willing to think as far as Paris. If he was to please and impress Roxanne, it'd make him, and most of all, her, happy. Paris…

As a plan formed in his genius head, he also pondered the possibility of his contraption mentioned to Roxanne earlier actually working when he tested it out tomorrow, with assistance from Minion. His giant Tesla coil he'd been working on for a month… he'd checked up on all the inner workings and then double checked it a few more times, so he figured he had a pretty good chance of it working.

As for telling Minion about the trip…

"Minion!" Megamind called to his robotic henchman the next morning while he sipped his coffee and ate a donut, his whole breakfast fresh out of Starbucks. He felt somewhat groggy from staying up until the wee hours of the morning the night before, and that made him forget to put on his spiked mantle, but he knew the coffee would fix things in a jiff, especially since he needed it to sustain himself if he was to make the Tesla coil work today. He didn't need a mantle for that.

"Minion, come here!" He leaned a little in his chair in urgency, almost tipping it, but he caught himself in time. Some of his coffee sloshed over and spattered on the floor.

"Oops…"

Quickly, he gulped the rest of the drink down and set it clumsily on the table as he tapped his long fingers, waiting for his henchman until he could hear stray bowgs of the brainbots followed by metal clanking of his robotic gorilla feet.

"What is it?" he asked politely when he reached the kitchen entrance.

"We're testing out the Tesla coil today. Remember? I've been working on it forever."

"Actually, I think you've only been working on it a month-and-a-half", Minion corrected.

Megamind tried calculating in his head, but said, "Oh, whatever. I guess I work fast." He grinned widely. "I just need to collect my supplies, and we can be on our way! Plus, I need to tell you something when we get on the roof." He began to slide out of his chair to prance over to his idea cloud where some toolboxes resided.

"Wait!"

Then he halted in his steps.

"Sir, is that coffee on the floor?"

He glanced at what he had spilled earlier.

"Oh, could you clean that, Minion? I need to unearth my work goggles, they've been hiding from me all week…"

And with that, he hastily dashed off out of the kitchen to search for that elusive headgear. Minion was left behind rolling his eyes and searching for the Swiffer mop instead.

* * *

><p>Megamind found his materials and Minion finished cleaning up the mess at about the same time, and met at the railed elevator that lifted them up a few stories, out of the Lair, on the roof to face the early morning sun glaring back down at them. Megamind squinted and turned away for a second, his just-awakened eyes trying to adjust to the sudden flash of light until after the first few moments, and then he didn't care.<p>

The duo swiftly made their way past the towering fake observatory from all that time ago. Megamind didn't feel like he should take it down… he just… sort of liked it up there. The Lair'd look weird without it now.

But to go along with it was the giant Tesla Coil he'd invented that was to shoot a wave of concentrated electricity to power lines in case power went out in a storm. And the coil was solar paneled, so it made its own electricity if others had none. And if the nearby power lines were severed, then he could control the beams and branch them out to other lines and different generators to give electricity to all who required it. The machine was pretty good for the first un-evil thing he'd created to polish up his reputation a bit. Solar-paneled, desgned like no other Tesla coil, and it towered proudly at the height of the observatory.

Megamind snapped his fingers, and two of his brainbots raced over to him as he removed his gloves, the bots grasping them gently in their spindly tendrils. He replaced the bare space on his hands with his thicker, dirtier work gloves, and then also snapped on his goggles so that nothing harmful got in his eyes.

Minion followed his master to the door in the cage that encased the Tesla coil, where the blue man drew out a key to unlock the slightly weathered padlock that secured the door. It popped open with a high squeal. Eagerly, the two bounded inside and set to work on the final components it needed to start functioning.

"Okay Minion, you know how to boot it up, right?" Megamind checked up as he settled his things down on the concrete and wheeled his crawler out, lying flat on his back on it and disappearing inside a hatch in the coil with a wrench in hand.

"I'm working on it right now!" Minion affirmed from around the other side of the energy source where he was typing various coded commands into a heavy control panel. Megamind continued to oil up the inner workings of his invention as the topic he wanted to discuss suddenly came to mind. How should he explain it to Minion? Paris was pretty far away, to say the least…

Well, staying silent was not going to work. And wasn't he good at brigning up topics out of nowhere at any time?

"Sir, I should ask you, did you make any progress with Roxanne last night?" Minion blurted out, breaking the silence. Megamind paused. He wheeled out of the hatch he was working in, and gave Minion an eager look, craning his head so they could see each other. "Uh-huh," he affirmed. He wiped a smudge of lubricant from the side of his face. Then he wore a more serious look. "Minion", he started carefully. He wheeled back inside the hatch so he would not have to see Minion's expression if he disapproved. "Roxanne and I just made light conversation, and it really seemed like…I had Paris in mind for a while now, and I've discovered that that would be the ideal place for her to travel to if I were to ask her," he said hesitantly. He winced inwardly and waited for Minion to start reasoning with him about why this was a mediocre idea. No matter how eager Megamind got about a far-fetched idea, there was always some kind of con, or 'what if?' down the road.

Minion was only mildly surprised at this, since it was typical of him to think big, especially for Roxanne, but still, Paris was in a whole different time zone. Unless they could choose an appropriate date to go when crime was running low in the city, and unless Roxanne wasn't terribly busy, that was almost completely out of the question.

When he didn't answer for a moment, Megamind started trying to explain himself before Minion started to go all parental on him with a million-and-one reasons against this idea desinged also to try and breach his very elusive conscience so he could make more clever choices for himself occasionally. After all, that was one of Minion's purposes. Without him around to talk sense into his master, he would have likely throw himself off a building at age sixteen, or something worse.

"Oh, Paris!" Minion said absently. His fish head cocked inside the water-filled dome perched upon his clunky metal gorilla robot. How should he say this…?

"Well… do you haved a plan, Sir? Or have you just decided, like, now?"

"Roxanne said that she had a week off from KMCP, starting Wednesday," Megamind started to explain. He finally rolled himself out of the hatch to talk to Minion properly without distorting his voice in the cavity. He lifted the goggles off of his eyes and rested them atop his blue forehead, peering at the robotic icthyoid. "I plan to tell Roxanne about it on Sunday. It'll give her time to consider the concept, and if she does accept by some wild chance, she'll stil have time to pack and everything." A glimmer from the bright morning sun danced inside his shockingly green eyes. He squinted, annoyed at the stabbing sunbeam, and then pulled his goggles back over his eyes and returned inside the hatch to tighten a loose bolt that had almost fallen out completely.

Minion thought about this plan, deciding it could sound a little short notice, but there was still a chance of Roxanne saying yes. A slim one. But even so, that slim chance could very well be bigger, since Minion knew how much his master valued her, and in turn, how much she valued him. Judging from the times she'd visited the Lair, maybe the chance wasn't so slim unless there was something important she had to do while she was on her week off.

"Are you sure about that? Paris is hours off of this time zone, and you're only going to give her a few day's notice. Especially if it's Paris, France you have in mind."

Megamind let out a laugh that was half-amused and half-nervous. "Minion, don't be ridiculous. Why would I take Roxanne to Tex-as? It's much too hot and muggy there for her liking, and besides, she hates country lifestyle."

There was a sense of finality in his sentence, indicating he would elaborate no further for now, since there was a new invention to test. He'd just finished his work screwing together some of the inner workings and twisting the electricity intensity controls, meanwhile Minion had also finished inputting the activation code, so there really was nothing much to question now that the Tesla coil was ready to spark to life.

Hastily, he stood up,kicked the crawler out of the way, picked up his toolbox, and bolted the metal hatch closed tightly. Minion punched the Enter button.

They both waited for a whirr of the inner mechanics churning, and then exited the metal cage, running fot the heavy door so the oncoming electricity wouldn't get them both electrocuted when the coil started doing its work, which was bound to happen soon.

At a distance, Megamind drew out the small control box from the toolbox, his fingers closing around it firmly, hovering over the buttons hesitantly.

A bright, yellowish fork of lightning radiated from the tip of the coil , catching onto the rods in the metal cage, followed by two more tendrils; some thick, some thin. Megamind closed a hand around the gyrating joystick on his remote, controlling on of the forks and how it bent and twisted. His thin blue mouth curled up into a proud smile.

"Ah, now this should definitely start doing its proper job soon enough. I knew it would work perfectly as usual." He smirked over to Minion, who in turn gave him a bright thumbs-up and continued to watch the Tesla coil's tendrils crackle and snap against the barred dome.

Until there came some sort of deep, painful-sounding churn from the inner mechanics that sounded anything but good.

"Ok, now what was that?" Megamind's grin immediately started to droop. His eyes darted from his prototype back down the control box, and soon he realized the movements of the arcs of electricity were out of sync with the directions he was issuing with the joystick. He jiggled the handle, but the sparks still wavered about uncontrolled and seeming to have a will of their own.

Then he heard the distinct sound of a screw or bolt or something rattling about somewhere _ inside _the generator. It started to vibrate and shake around.

_Clackety-clack! _It went, as if reminding him of his own stupidity for not screwing it in tightly enough, He must've gotten distracted while he'd been discussing the Paris plot with Minion and had forgotten to fasten something in with that extra firm twist he always made to make absolute sure it was secure. He did it for a reason.

And now he'd just failed.

The stupid genius's remote clattered to the ground, his mind slowly working out of the little terrified bout it had just went through. Chewing his lips, he brought himself to look back at his messed-up creation, which had started to whine a bit louder. Tendrils of smoke emitted from the hatch where Megamind should have been able to screw the bolt or whatever it was, up tight.

"Sir, you can_not_ look me in the eyes and say that was normal."

Megamind laughed, trying to reassure himself.

"Ha! Um… you're right! That _wasn't_ normal! Just… take the elevator back down and I'll deal with everything…"

Minion rolled his eyes, but complied. If there was any way, he could probably shut it off using the control box, and then he'd dart right back into that hatch to fix whatever had come loose. Megamind waited until Minion had disappeared completely from sight to frantically scramble to pick the remote back up and punch the kill button.

Nothing happened.

"Blast it! I failed again!"

He paced around, angry at himself for being so distracted just by making light conversation until he took a closer look at his coil, which he figured would probably start smoking and possibly even explode by the looks of how it was shaking the ground and sparking all over. The lightning started to wink on and off erratically, just looking like a plain chaotic mess.

He figured he would have to get off the roof soon. Maybe it would be best to see what happened to the machine from a distance. At least it wasn't anything toxic that was exploding. He figured it would only scratch the roof.

With a heavy, frustrated sigh of defeat yet again, he stepped stiffly into the elevator and went down, crawling at a snail's pace until he was outside on the concrete ground, estimating when the coil would explode or implode or whatever it was gonna do.

He didn't even look at the machine until he heard some raucous noises coming from it, and then all at once the whole thing started breaking and sending bits of metal flying, hitting the scaffolding of the nearby fake observatory. The metal clattered noisily.

Megamind's and Minion's mouths hung open as they watched the whole thing crumble inside the heavy cage it was enclosed in bit by bit, smoke puffing out in huge, black swirling clouds. After about fifteen minutes of disentigration, all was silent.

Minion was the first one to move, stealing a nervous glance over at his master who looked stuck between wanting to cry, or have a tantrum, or go back to bed. Whichever outlet he took, though, it would only happen when he tore his wide, gawking green eyes away from the wreckage he'd accidentally caused.

After another minute or two, he closed his mouth and blinked several times.

"It's another faliure. Just like the evil days…"

The disappointed blue alien started to walk away, back inside the Lair, bending over, looking defeated as he had too many times before.

Minion couldn't think of anything to say to him. He understood why this was depressing. He finally had a chance to create something that works, and it failed. That would dampen anyone's day considerably.

Maybe he'd just check the roof for any damage.

Meanwhile, Megamind laid completely drained out on the couch.

He worriedly thought, if he failed at this one good invention, would he fail at other, more complex things?

Like maintaning a relationship with Roxanne Ritchi?

And he didn't even want to get started at how he'd come with the news of taking her to Paris.

Was this one of his phobias now?

Faliure?

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><p>MNEH. I STILL NO LIKEY. And I'm sure the whole world is lining up to read this story, right? Yeah, it's so popular...<p>

AGGHHH WHY U NO REVIEW! I'M WASTING AWAY SLOWWWWLYYY... But I will keep correcting the crappiness. JUST YOU WAIT!


	3. Chapter 3

OKAY! Here's the third chapter nice and preened for everyone, and thank god it took less time than chapter two... laziness... it amazes me... but here I am posting it at 10:00 at night, trying not to get caught XD enjoy!

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><p>"Ok, Megamind! I need to finish this up, just wait a second!" Roxanne said impatiently as the alien in question slowly backed away from the range of the camera so she could finish the quick report she had to do. He tried to make it quick and give her a heads-up beforehand, but that had been practically impossible, him having arrived at an inconvenient time. He hadn't had much choice, considering he'd been worrying himself muddled for a while before, and eventually had to start getting to fix the mess the Tesla coil debris had made. Afterwards, he'd taken an energy bar and hurried over, but now he had to wait.<p>

Oh well. He had plenty to watch.

Like how the evening breeze was ruffling her short brown hair, and then when she reached up to brush it out of her eyes… it had been such a habit for the longest time, andd when she did it, Megamind's blood spiked up in speed, sending his pulse beating just a bit faster than it had before…

Eventually his gaze was directed to her mouth as he tried to maintain casual body language. When he felt himself start to color, he quickly looked away, careful to not divert her attention from the camera. He'd kiss her eventually. But he'd really wanted to press against those lips for longer than just recently. He'd wanted to for years as he kidnapped her and got saved by Metro Man.

So now that they were dating, it was getting to the point where he needed it to happen.

The alien stood stock-still, completely immobile until Roxanne's cameraman shut off the equipment and drove off into the evening in the van, after which Roxanne reached up to once again brush the tendrils of chocolate hair out of her face when the breeze picked up.

"There are some serious clouds rolling in," she commented, taking a glance at the sky half-thick with heavy clouds. "So what did you want to say, Megs?"

Before she had time to fully finish her sentence, Roxanne's feet suddenly weren't on the ground anymore, and instead there was something clamped around both her shoulders, lifting her in the air much too fast for her liking, which left her stomach behind on the ground, so far down…

"MEGAMIND, WHAT'S GOING ON?" She practically screamed. She was just not a person who tolerated heights in a civilized manner.

Skinny arms immediately wrapped around her waist, trying to give her a sense of security since she was so high up. Roxanne calmed a little at the sound of Megamind's voice saying, "sorry, I know you hate heights, but how many times in your life are you going to recieve a ride home by means of my brainbots?"

At his last words, the cyborgs gave a few bowgs in response, their red glowing eyestalks bending over to look at the reporter's face curiously. She laughed a little, trying to forget the heights and instead trust that the brainbots wouldn't loosen their grip on her.

She didn't look down as they started to move above the city, dodging building they came across.

"Hey, Megs?"

"Hmm?"

"You know, this reminds me of when that idiot Titan flung me around and nearly gave me a heart attack, thinking I was going to splatter on the road in the middle of traffic. I'm guessing you're not going to let your brainbots do that to me?"

Megamind went a little stiff, but swerved just in time to avoid a jutting radio antenna that could have knocked a boot off.

"Yeah, someday I'll have to visit my old cell to gloat to that pig. I'll never forgive him." The pouty face Roxanne had suceeded in eliciting from him made her chuckle to herself at how protective he was of her. She liked that about him.

After a few more times dodging skyscrapers and a brainbot accidentally letting go of one of Megamind's shoulders for a frightening instant, the two landed on Roxanne's balcony.

The stunned blue genius brushed himself off and shooed his bots away back home with a disapproving look.

"Um, sorry, I guess those bots in particular got a little too much charge yesterday. I'll use the jetbike next time…"

Great. Now he was all nervous and stuttery again. He tried to stop twiddling his thumbs by clasping his hands behind his back, but all he ended up doing was averting his gaze to the metropolis below over the balcony. Stupid. He needed to look at Roxanne, not at the roads.

He felt her fingers do it for him when she grabbed his face in her hands and tugged in to meet her eyes. They had a knowing glint in that sky blue iris, one that Megamind knew was telling him to tell her whatever he wanted to say instead of clamming up and getting nervous like he nromally did. He stared into her face for a while, a bit hesitant, and was about to say something before Roxanne spoke first.

"Listen, Megamind, I've noticed you get awfully shy and tense whenever you try to tell me something I need to know anyway. Actually, you've been like this since we started dating."

Megamind sighed and bowed his head in defeat. This time he had to stop. Stop shaking like a leaf every time he was in her wonderful, warm prescence he'd never gotten to feel quite before. Roxanne understood his awkward introduction to contact by another human, and he had been getting better gradually, but she wanted to ease him out of this stage so he could be fully comfortable around her. Now was the time he should be getting used to her company, especially since he'd been wanting it for so long.

_She's correct, as usual_, he said in his mind, inwardly rolling his eyes.

Megamind's expression softened. "I'm… I'm sorry. I get it. I've been spending so much time with you these past couple months, and I adore your company." He reached his arms out, closing around her figure and pulling her into a hug. "I honestly don't know why I'm like this. I've wanted… this for so long, you have no idea." It was only a little after he said it that he realized the first bit was a lie. The looming possibility of failiure always haunted him now that he had a hero's duty, and couldn't afford to fail, and he didn't want to fail at other things besides that either. Having this responsibility just got to him, and plus, making up for all the evil he'd done that had never really been in his heart all along was another deep-down reason foor being adamant about success.

Especially success in making Roxanne his. The only trouble was…

What if he didn't have time to tell her about what would happen if they ever kissed?

He'd cross that bridge when he came to it. For now, it was about crawling out of his shell for a change.

They came apart from the embrace after a little while. "So, what was it you wanted so badly to tell me?"

Megamind took a deep breath in and out to ready himself.

"Well… since you mentioned that you had a week off this coming Wednesday, you know… I happened to have this big idea, since I really think you deserve a luxury once in a while, and since you and I, in fact, will most likely have the whole week to ourselves with these low crime rates and all, I was thinking…"

No more hesitation. Roxanne had her impatient face on.

"Why not just take a plane to Paris, France?"

The reporter in front of him blinked dumbfoundedly. She stayed frozen in place for just a moment, almost as if she was stunned into this eternal silence since all she was doing was stare wide-eyed at the alien in front of her, who was starting to look a bit uncomfortable with how long she'd been ogling.

Finally, Roxanne regained control of herself and shook her head to clear her thoughts.

"I-I'm sorry, did I hear you say Paris? Not Paris, Texas, but Paris, _France?_"

Megamind couldn't exactly tell where the tone of her voice was going, but he was trying to stay confident.

"Um, yes, dear, that's exactly what I mean."

Roxanne took a step towards him and grabbed him by the skinny shoulders. He blushed when their eyes locked, faces inches apart, which was easy for Roxanne to do, because she was almost taller than he was.

"Do you know how long… I've wanted to go there…? I mean ,really, do you know? Obviously you don't I never told you…" She started rambling, turning into a rarely-seen hyperactive mess because of the news.

"But why is this on such short notice?"

"Oh, well, because…"

"You know, the other night was just a reminder that I had a week off. I told you in advance two weeks ago, Capitan Distracto."

This time it was Megamind's turn to stare awkwardly. Then give a sheepich laugh at himself.

"Ah, yes, capitain of distraction, that I am… sorry about that, too, but at least I didn't wait until Tuesday of next week, right?"

"Yeah, you got a point…," Roxanne mused. Megamind inwardly gave a sigh of relief. She may just accept the offer after all…

"Well… if you're serious about this, have you already bought the plane tickets, then?"

"Of course. I planned everything." His smile grew adorably wider as things looked more and more positive.

"And you're not just attention-seeking? I hope you're not, you drama queen," Roxanne teased, tapping the end of his nose.

Megamind laughed curtly. "Although I do have a tendency to put on splendidly believable acts of such, this is no prank, Ms. Ritchi. I meant what I said. Do you accept?"

He held his hand out gallantly, a hopeful look in his eyes, almost talking her into slipping her own hand into his slender fingers, intertwining them, resonating a solid, meaningful yes.

"I accept. Definitely. I'm used to being called on things on short notice, but at least this is on a week where I'm positive I'm not doing anything. That added to the fact that I've wanted to visit Paris since I was a kid… you got yourself a deal, you lucky spaceman."

Megamind could have jumped up in joy. He had been predicting this awful scene where she had turned the offer down, and had even believed the possibilities of her acceptance to be thin, but now in a matter of days, there was an almost 99% chance they'd be boarding a plane to head off to Europe at the drop of a hat.

"Ok, so what time is the departure?"

"We have to be at the airport by seven in the morning… so I'll pick you up at 5:30 sharp. Can you handle that?"

"I wake up when it's still dark out all the time. Not a problem. The real question is, can _you _handle it?"

Megamind hesitated. "I'll just…pull my all-nighters off over the weekend. How does that sound?" He tried a convincing grin.

Roxanne drew him closer courageously. "Don't let me catch you with bags under your eyes, or you'll never survive the jet lag."

"Ah! I read up on that, and I know exactly how to counter it! There will be no purple bags under my incredibly handsome eyes, guaranteed."

"Ah huh. You do that, then."

They grinned at each other, and after a while had to draw each other closer for body heat when the cool night breeze turned into a cold wind that ruffled Roxanne's hair against Megamind's neck. It tickled, but softly. It smelled like pineapples and citrus…

One way or another, he was suddenly expectant of her lips landing on his when their eyes met at the same time, and all at once he was being pulled closer. He didn't resist, but he fell into it almost unaware of what was happening, as if the movement were completely natural, he wasn't in control of anything in his body…

Until his nerves jumped up in surprise when he felt something cold and wet seep into his clothes and trickling down his back painfully slowly, causing him to jolt up stiffly in shock, his skinny frame shivering.

"What's wrong?" Roxanne asked, her brow furrowed.

"Something… cold…" Megamind held his hand out over the balcony, and then another drop of ice-cold water plopped down on it. Then a few more, and gradually his leather was dampened as an entire sheet of rain let loose on him after Roxanne had quickly taken shelter under the awning near the door of her balcony.

He tried not to, but the mastermind squealed as his nerves went haywire with the temperature of the water all over his body, soaking him to the hypersensitive skin. The tightness of his spandex made it worse as it trapped all the water, and it seeped into his boots, too, making them completely uncomfortable…

He scurried over to the safety of the awning, panting when he got there, his teeth chattering so hard, Roxanne could hear them clacking together over the pattering of the water attacking the earth below.

She couldn't help but laugh at his reactions, really. He was just so sensitive to temperature.

"Alright, Miss Ritchi, what, may I ask, is so funny about me getting drenched to my perfect skin in ice-cold precipitation?" He gave another shudder as a fat drop of clear rainwater rolled down his long nose and into his shirt.

"You scream just like a girl, you know," Roxanne chortled.

"Ok, you're getting wet with me if that's what you want, dear."

Before the reporter had time to react, Megamind shoved her out of the safety of her awning, into the frigid rain where her hair immediately sagged down and stuck to her forehead in clumps, and she felt the water soaking through all of her clothes.

She sputtered and pushed him back at first, muttering about how childish he could be before she calmed down just a little.

"Astro Boy, you should be glad I'm wearing clothes from a thrift store, because if I were wearing a peacoat, it would be all over for you."

"Ha! I just got lucky, then, didn't I?" He smiled a smile that was cute even though he was freezing, but still stretched his ego like a balloon. Kind of weird, if you thought about it. He was cute one minute, then serious, then completely attractive, and hyper, then a braggart, and then the sweetest man imaginable. So versatile, so… him.

He had gotten a little more used to the temperature of the pouring rain splattering against his head, so he walked freely across Roxanne's balcony as naturally as if he were just walking around his own home. He delighted in watching her wonderfully confused face as he hopped up on the edge of the balcony, being cautious not to slip on the water.

Behind his back, he snapped his fingers, but over the rain it could not be heard by Roxanne.

Then he took one big step backwards and fell right off the edge, right towards the street below, except he had a nonchalant air about the entire thing.

Despite the niggling knowledge that he'd suddenly pop right back up unharmed, Roxanne almost slid on rain puddle just to dash over to the balcony edge looking for that alien. If there was no bloody wreckage on the crossroads below, she'd be satisfied.

But all at once, she rammed into a pair of bright, lively green eyes.

"Made you look! Never threaten a supervillain, Miss Ritchi, is what I always say."

"Shut up, blue guy." Roxanne moved forward to kiss him on the cheek, which was cold and soaking wet, but then so was she. "So, Paris… I'll definitely be ready for that one."

Megamind allowed himself another smile at his success and seeing Roxanne happy like this at his suggestion. Even with something this big, she'd accepted to go. That, in his eyes, was a huge achievment, and a step forward in his relationship with this lovely little temptress.

The brainbots below his feet were his only support in staying like this, and they were apparently getting skittish by the way they were bumping the soles of their master's feet with their clawed tendrils.

"Ah hah, so I'll see you very soon, then, Roxanne. Good night."

Maintaining utmost balance in straddling his bots even in this rain, he turned around and hovered away back to the Lair, stopping momentarily to shout, "Oh, and don't trouble yourself too much in drying off!"

After that, he was gone. And Roxanne was left with a hopeful feeling in her stomach as she walked through her door dripping water everywhere, in search of a fluffy towel and a heating grate.

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><p>THIIIIIIIIISSSS. This was so much better. YAY I FEEL MOTIVATED! X3 I'll try to get the next ones done and out of the way so I can work on my other fics... GOOD NIGHT,WORLD.<p> 


	4. Chapter 4

AYAYAYAY. YOU GUYS. The correction prcess is so hard, especially when you have all these other more exciting projects going on, inluding wanting to write fanfic on a new obsession... KUROSHITSUJI! Or Black Butler! I just got addicted a few days ago... and I am LOVIN' on Grell Sutcliff. I mean, seriously. I have an Otaku mascot of him sitting on this window, he's on my desktop, my user icon, and my iPod wallpaper. I plan to watch more Black Butler after I post this...

Man, I cannot get over how red my computer is right now. XD

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><p>Chapter 4<p>

Her sleep-mussed hair tickled her nose, rousing her from sleep one Wednesday morning. She groaned. Judging by the darkness apparent through her window, it was too early to be up now. It was her week off. She wanted to sleep in until nine, at least.

Wait…

Her week off…

She sat upright with a start, her realization waking up every nerve in her body within moments. She surveyed her dim room, and judging by the way her clothes were laid out and ready, and the Post-it on her bedside table, today was definitely the day.

But before she could get excited, she whipped around to face the dreaded time on the alarm clock beside her.

_4:55 A.M._

"Holy…!" She'd slept in! Maybe when her alarm had gone off, she'd pressed the snooze button… and slept an extra twenty-five minutes. An amount of time she couldn't afford to waste. It usually took her about an hour to get ready on a typical morning, but now she had a mere 35 minutes to do it all. This was stupid!

Megamind was due to pick her up very soon. Now, this would truly be a test of her morning energy.

"OW! Shhhh—" Roxanne tripped over her robe in her haste to get to her kitchennette, and she bit back a torrent of curses because of her discombobulation with her head and all. This didn't stop her from flinging out the cereal, the milk, and the bowls onto her counter in a noisy mess, then sloppily fixing herself the bare minimum to give her just enough satisfaction for one meal. Small puddle of milk topped with a few handfuls of Cheerios she didn't bother to use a spoon to eat with. She just tilted the bowl to her lips, nearly choking on the tasteless food , but curiously, no milk was spilled. In fact, it was gone before she was even done with the actual food.

"Oh, who cares, anyway…" There would always be food at the airport. She scraped the cereal out of the bowl, rinsed it, and then chucked it in her dishwasher. This had taken five minutes, and now she had to prep herself in the remaining half hour.

First there was a shower that took three minutes, and then she blow-dryed her hair, a task which took a painful ten more minutes.

"God, there won't be time to put on makeup!"

She angrily applied just a little cleanser and concealer and packed the rest of her other cosmetics in a small bag, which then went into her suitcase.

Twenty minutes left.

She squeezed in some time to make her hair a little more presentable by spraying on hairspray and a little bit of gel to tame the flyaways that weren't staying put. Definitely something the makeup artists at the news station would scream at, but decent enough for the public. Whenever she was in a rush and had never put on makeup on a date, Megamind thought she was actually wearing makeup, and complimented her on it. She thought that… kind of him. She herself hated to go with the minimum amount of preening she needed to face the day.

After that, Roxanne scrambled to brush her teeth and put on clothing, and then went over a mental checklist in case there was anything she'd forgotten to put in her suitcase.

"Okay. Got everything," she mumbled to herself. She rushed over to look out her window just to scan for any signs of Megamind waiting for her down below, since she could tell when his car was invisible if the air was shimmering strangely. Her suitcases in hand, she squinted, and then saw that familiar distortion in the street, idle and waiting for her right in front of the rotating doors to her building.

Roxanne turned on her heel and dashed out her front door, making sure to lock it firmly. In her head, she chanted over and over, _please don't let the elevator be crowded, there are always people up at any hour…!_ When she came to the elevator, she breathed a sigh of relief that she was the only one there.

She pushed the button to the lobby, and went down, tapping her foot constantly, wishing this piece of machinery could go faster. Every few seconds, she glanced at her watch like some sort of caffineated kid. It was 5:29, not five-thirty on the nose as he'd promised.

She nearly tripped over her own luggage when she reached the ground floor, and bolted for the door as best as she could across the carpet, saying a quick good-morning and goodbye to Carlos. He pushed the door for her, and then she was out from the warmth of her building into the chilly air of dawn.

"Whoa! Hello!" She halted, completely out of breath when Megamind stepped gracefully out of the passenger's seat. She could have bowled him over with how she'd been rushing. He himself stumbled backwards and almost tripped on the curb with the surprise he got.

"And a good morning to you, too." He was wearing a double-buttoned trench coat that was very fitted on his slender body, but some of the buttons were fastened crookedly. His leather boots weren't quite buckled on. Just as she had expected, there was a faint tracery of purple around his eyes, and a glassy look in them, too.

"Hey, what happened to you?"

"I'll tell you… in the car…" Megamind heaved himself up from the hood of the car and swept up Roxanne's bags to pack them in the trunk around the back. Before she could object and help him with the loading, the trunk was closed, and he threw her a very tired, but sweet smile.

This time, when they climbed in, Megamind made a point to get into the backseat with Roxanne.

"Good morning, Miss Ritchi!" Came the cheery greeting of Minion, who was up front at the steering wheel. "Unlike Sir, did you sleep well?"

"Sorry, I pressed the snooze button and ended up sleeping another half hour. Also, I didn't think he'd stick to that promise of staying well-rested." Roxanne gestured to the half-awake alien beside her, who was starting to look like he'd need to hold his eyelids open soon.

"Well, I never expected I'd have to be repairing some of the roof, not to mention taming some of my brainbots when they malfunctioned. I cannot find my wrenches _anywhere…_"

"Wait, so what's wrong with the roof?" Roxanne questioned.

"Something exploded," Megamind said quickly. He didn't like explaining in detail how he'd failed at an intention for good, like he'd failed at evil machines.

Roxanne decided to let that one go, but eyed him again when he groaned and clutched at his stomach. His face colored when it let out a starving growl.

"And there you go again, refusing to eat when I can tell you're obviously eating away at yourself inside," Minion said in a motherly, parental way that made the ex-villain grumble to himself.

"I gave up breakfast so we could be here on time like I promised!" He whined.

"Actually, you were one minute early," the woman beside him offered.

"Poppy-coke!" He cried, frantically looking out the window at the few people that were starting to gather around the car, having seen the invisible shimmer. "If we're not late, I can get some blasted coffee if there's any at the airport. Onward!" The melodramatic alien pointed straight up the street, which was Minion's signal to start the long drive to the airport.

The elusive vehicle pulled from the curbside.

"Wow, someone's grumpy this morning. I wonder why?" Roxanne smirked.

"Argh, you may have thwarted me this time, Miss Ritchi, but I wasn't expecting to have to make one of my alligators regurgitate my best wrench. If Minion hadn't let the brainbot fly off with it, I would have decreased the chances of building a prosthetic hand for myself all in one night."

"How was that episode my fault?" The cyborg asked innocently from up front.

"Oh, you guys…" Roxanne sighed. _And I can actually put up with all this. How is that possible? _

Megamind leaned back in his seat with a heavy sigh, and he muttered under his breath to calm himself. He couldn't be like this in front of Roxanne, not on a day like this. Sometimes this week, he'd say it. He'd say what he'd been waiting so long to admit to her, even though she already sort of knew his feelings since the early villain days.

Though, of course, knowing without him actually confiming was not the same in the least.

After a little more steady breathing, he was calm, but just tired. "So what exactly do you have planned once we get to Paris?" Roxanne asked.

And suddenly he was at a loss for words. He'd done a lot of Internet searches, sure, but deciding was what had become the hardest part.

"Well… the thing is, I couldn't decide on where to start first, you see. There were so many places, so many tour packages… I thought I had my heart set on fireworks at the top of the Eiffel Tower, but then I saw this wine-tasting thing in the greenest vineyard I've ever seen, and—"

"Ok, stop a second," Roxanne said, holding up her hand. She took a moment to drink in all he'd been considering. "You really wanted to take me to all these expensive places?"

"Well… y-yes. You deserve the best," he admitted with a sweet grin.

Something melted inside the brunette reporter at those words. He'd been saying that a lot lately, whenever she thanked him for taking her to four-diamond restaurants, or admission to something she'd have to save up for with months of tireless work.

Roxanne stroked his shoulder lovingly. "I'm glad you think that way. But I'll be happy even if we just sit around a hotel room, because you'll be with me. Nothing ultra-fancy is required."

"Oh, good, because I was frantic when I couldn't find something to settle on this morning."

"Another culprit for the purple eyes, I'm guessing?" she remarked, flicking his ear.

Momentarily, the alien blushed because of the sensitivity of his ears, but confessed. "Yes."

Then his expression quirked. "But we aren't really going to sit around in the hotel all week, are we?"

"No, blue guy, I was just trying to say that I'll be happy with whatever it is we decide on if I'm doing it with you," Roxanne chuckled, squeezing his hand. "You didn't have to do all this for me in the first place."

"Dear, I wanted to. So badly. You couldn't imagine how nervous I felt trying to tell you I bought tickets."

She smiled peacefully again. "I probably would have accepted on almost any terms, Megamind." She kissed him near the ear.

"Now, if you're so tired, you can make use of this hour-and-a-half car ride to get some extra rest."

"Nonsense! I will make it without faltering by any means!" He said, trying to seem upbeat, but it was obviously forced.

Because within the next ten minutes, he was slouched on Roxanne's shoulder, fast asleep, mouth slightly open.

"Don't wake him up, Miss Ritchi…" Minion whispered when he saw what was going on in the rear-view mirror.

"He's sleeping like a rock." She jiggled her shoulder to prove the point.

"Good, He should stay like that until we get to the airport. It doesn't go over well with him if he gets three hours of sleep in one night. Heh heh."

"Night-owl…," Roxanne mumbled into his bald head. He responded by giving a slight wiggle in his sleep. Surprisingly, she was finding it easy to keep the weight of his brilliantly heavy skull as he napped.

* * *

><p>She just lightly massaged his scalp until they came to Metro City airport. It was seven in the last, the car pulled up to a stop outside the entrance to the building , and Roxanne gently shook Megamind awake. He'd slept the entire ride, and judging by hiw he'd occasionally twitched or moaned, he had been dreaming as well. Roxanne hoped he wouldn't get too discombobulated from the time change once they entered Europe. Maybe he'd just fall back asleep on the plane ride.<p>

"Ugh… what…? OH! We're here!" He suddenly jumped up as if he'd never been the slightest bit tired from the start, riled up from excitement and a little anxiousness. He spastically struggled to undo his irritating seatbelt so he was free to swing the car door open to hop over to the back of the car so he could unload all the bags.

"Hold on, Sir! I think I should unload your bags—"

CRASH. A bunch of stuff started falling out.

"Those better not have been my suitcases!" Roxanne exclaimed as she made haste to get out of the car as well.

When she rounded around to the trunk of the car, she saw Megamind frantically trying to collect all of what seemed like _his_ clothing which had spilled out of one of his bags in a messy cascade of mostly leather and spandex. He muttered under his breath as Minion belted out scolds to him for practically flinging out his luggage before the icthyoid could step in and help.

"It's a lucky thing… it… didn't… RAIN today!" The ex-villain said, punctuating almost each word with jamming one article of clothing back in his suitcase; an indicative he didn't want to be lectured right now when he was rushing to get to the flight on time.

Quickly, the reporter grabbed her own baggage carefully and set it down on the asphalt. A few handles on the rolling bags popped up with a solid _clink_, and she was ready right around when Megamind loaded himself with all his suitcases. He was carrying a heavier load than she was, but surprisingly, he could support it after Minion adjusted some bags that were teetering.

"Well! I sure do hope you two have a nice time while you're gone," the henchfish said brightly. "And yes, Sir, I closed off the Pit of Death before we left."

"Oh, good," he sighed just as he was aboout to ask the question. The alien stumbled under the weight of his load. "I guess we'll be off, then."

"Bye! And have fun!" The pirahna couldn't hold back from hugging the couple in his fuzzy robotic arms before they departed for good. Megamind almost dropped another bag when his friend let him go.

"Yes, see you in a week, Minion!"

"Bye!"

After the fish got back into the car alone, Megamind tried his best to hurry even with the weight of the stuff he was carrying. Roxanne followed close behind, trying not to laugh at hiw ironic the sight was.

"You can lug all that and not collapse? On numerous ocasions, I thought you'd topple over if you hung your head even a little."

"Har de har. Funny! This is all in muscle, and don't you remember? I told you I work out."

Roxanne laughed quitely, and said, "Well, at least let me carry one thing."

"Okay!" He rather enthusiastically handed over a small suitcase. The woman took it carefully, but almost dropped it on her toe right after.

"Agh! Okay, not that I don't like bowling, but I didn't think you were a fanatic… what is _in_ there?"

"Tools," he replied nonchalantly.

"You took tools on vacation?"

"You never know when something might need to be fixed!" The hero declared.

"Oh… okay, I guess there's no point in arguing with your logic." She shook her head and tried to uphold the heavy bag as much as she could as they entered the doors of the airport.

* * *

><p>"And then you shoot the security guard! And get away with it! I'm surprised we've even made it to the waiting area…"<p>

Roxanne slumped down on a chair, letting go of all her luggage, which had been previously run through customs. Megamind's had been run through too, though that came with a fight with security concerning his De-Gun. It was already well settled in to most of society, in Metro City and out, that he had almost bar none probability of returning to evil, but apparently the staff was either suspicious or had something against him. Those peabrains thought the gun could actually kill people! (He'd once had a De-Stroy setting on the gun, but he'd locked that setting for when it was absolutely necessary.) But the device stayed with him at all times, no questions asked.

As a demonstration of how harmless it was, he'd dehydrated the head of security and told the man at the customs to just drop him in water. The alien had gotten away without a scratch, Roxanne following him openmouthed at his slyness.

"I was defending my gun. I never part with it," Megamind smiled as he settled into his chair next to the reporter. "If I could, I'd never part with you…"

She sighed and placed her head on his skinny shoulder. Ahead of them, there would probably be a while of sitting, since there were some dangerous winds causing turbulence in the higher skies, which would delay flights by at least a half hour. It would be hard to wait even that long for something so big and anticipated.

It would also be hard to wait to get some food, since Megamind's hunger had caught up with him while they were making it through the airport.

He tried to control himself and wait until he was on the plane. Maybe just some peanuts would be fine, no matter how stale and brittle the were, at least they were something. That is, if he grabbed about seven bags of them. Seven bags. So many peanuts… food…

His stomach went off growling again at its emptiness, and even over the commotion of the early morning commute, Roxanne heard it.

"Boy, what did you have for breakfast? A lettuce leaf?" She inquired.

"No. I had nothing, remember? I'm skinny enough as it is anyway; it's barely noticable."

Roxanne reached over and ran her fingers over the lower half of his chest, where she felt telltale ridges of his jutting ribs.

"I'm not surprised. If you go without one meal, just one, you'll get pretty weak soon. Sugarless blood is useless to feed that big brain of yours."

"I know…," he said like a scolded child as he slid down in his seat with crossed arms.

Roxanne craned her neck to look over the crowd at some newsstands across the way.

"Oh, hey, looks, a Starbucks."

"Where?" Megamind immediately snapped up at the mentioning of the coffee shop. Whe he was close to standing on the chair he was on to see over the crowd, Roxanne pulled him back down.

"Whoa, relax, just go get something!" She laughed at his desperation just to get some food, but especially since it was a café sitting right in front of him. He'd get something stuffed with chocolate, surely…

"Muffins were what I was craving, actually!" The alien said, standing up swiftly and dramatically. "Do you want anything, Miss Ritchi?"

"I had cereal this morning. I think I'll be fine. Now run along and get your caffiene."

He lit up like a kid with new allowance and at once wasted no time in weaving through the clumps of people who almost automatically made way for him, of course. After Roxanne lost sight of him, she drew her phone out of her pocket to check her e-mail while she waited.

"All from everyone at the station… all spam. How disappointing," she muttered through gritted teeth upon seeing 21 individual messages from work plus one advertising for automatic toasters. Where did that come from? Oh, Internet…

The journalist scrolled through the completely uninteresting list and deleted every single message in her inbox. As she pressed the button that led her to the menu, she felt a weird tingling near the back of her neck.

"Agh… my tag's stickin' out…" But when she reached back to push it back down, there was no tag.

"What…" There was a sensation much like a feather duster tickling her skin now, but when she rubbed her neck, it wouldn't go away. Had she slept with something in her pajamas? They were new, and the fabric was a little abrasive in places…

It couldn't be so much so that it would give her a rash that itched like crazy.

Pretty soon, it had just gotten annoying, and for som reason, she whipped her head around with a low growl just to see if an infuriating little boy was doing something. There wasn't anything in particular tht was close to her…

But some woman certainly caught her eye.

She was sitting completely isolated in a chair, her face buried in a beauty magazine until she lifted her eyes from it a few seconds later. The orbs were coal-black; a rare color, but not as rare as her outfit. It seemed almost completely made of tulle and sequins and ribbon with a frilly neckline, waist, and hem that resembled a child's dress-up costume. Around her neck was a thick, blue satin ribbon that clearly indicated she was very strange, and as Roxanne examined her fully, she began to feel unsafe.

Almost as soon as the thought popped into her head, the woman locked eyes with her and narrowed her eyes into a sinister look not even Megamind could pull off.

"Ah. Um… hello."

She kept on staring with the look on her face, and gradually, her sharp, black nails dug into the cover of the magazine, ripping it.

_Yikes. What the…_

Her hip.

Something…

There…

A KNIFE.

Strapped around the woman's waist was a long dagger as long as the magazine in her hands, the handle polished wood in the shape of a skull with tiny rubies in the gaping sockets.

"HEY, YOU!"

"What?"

Roxanne whipped around to find herself looking back into Megamind's much more comforting green eyes before she could catch the attention of the garish lady with the knife strapped to her.

"Er… M-Megamind! Look right here, there's—"

The reporter pointed stiffly to where the woman was supposed to be, but the chair was completely empty of anyone. She'd left.

"Roxanne…? What's gotten you so troubled?"

Roxanne whirled back around. "I saw this lady, and she… the knife…"

"And what's this about a knife?" The alien asked, sitting down and taking a bite of his pumpkin muffin.

"She… forget it. I didn't sleep anough last night, that might be it."

"Then do you see the green zebras, too?" Megamind asked in a low voice as he clung to her shoulder. "I see them in the fridge when I'm up at odd hours. They have paddleballs, and are not afraid to use them."

Roxanne hesitated before letting it all go and laughing. "Zebras? What is on your mind?"

"Normal things! Plans! Stuff… I'm not sure it's possible to control hallucinations…"

Before Roxanne could stop him, he hounded his hand in his pocket to fish for a notepad and pen.

"Hallucination Headband would be a good name… then I can relax when I know for certain that no giant centipedes live under the couch I sleep on."

"How many hours of sleep do you get a week, exactly?" Roxanne demanded, chuckling.

"Hmm… maybe 20 or so. If it's a slow week, I might reach 32. Depends."

"I can see why coffee is your lifesaver…"

"Mm hmm." The alien took a bite of his muffin and washed it down with a hot latté in his other hand. He sat back in the chair mext to Roxanne. "Except… Roxanne, you've never hallucinated before, that I know of. What exactly was that all about?"

The young woman bit her lip and glanced at where the strange lady used to be. In her place, there was now a crisp buisnessman reading a newspaper.

"You know, I think there was something wrong with the mattress springs in my bed. Maybe I didn't get as much sleep as I thought after all." She was highly beginning to doubt what she had seen, dismissing it as just a weird illusion that was brought on for some unknown reason.

Who cared. That was probably just what it was anyway.

Megamind seemed satisfied with her answer, and went on to eat at his muffin happily for the remaining minutes of waiting. Almost as soon as he finished, there was a voice over an intercom that made everyone stop what they were doing and listen.

_Air France will be boarding now. All passengers please make your way to the boarding area; thank you for your attention. _

"Well, that's our cue. Finish that muffin, and we'll be on our way," Roxanne announced brightly, standing up with her suitcases. Megamind immediately started rushing, and crammed the last of his breakfast into his mouth, snatching up his drink and struggling to hold up his bags again,catching up to the reporter as she made her way out of the airport building.

She helped Megamind when he was having trouble with his luggage, though he resisted. She managed to carry one of his smalled bags with her own, but all the while as she walked, she still had an imprint of the gaudy woman in her mind. She did doubt that what she saw was real, but there was just a lingering feeling that made her stomach turn a little.

Megamind suddenly rushed ahead of her in his excitement, yelling for her to keep up. She hurried forward, trying her best to forget all that, and instead focus on the oncoming journey that awaited the moment they stepped on the plane and entered Europe all those thousands of miles away.

* * *

><p>SO WAS THAT GOOD ENOUGH I HOPE THAT WAS GOOD ENOUGH! I gotta correct the next chapter now! I have a feeling the next one will be easier, but I cannot wait until I delve into the parts whereit started getting better so I can STOP, and make the sequel! ARGH! Grell... Random blurting...<p>

Please be patient and review ;_;


	5. Chapter 5

AY CARAMBA, WHAT A HIATUS.

I've been grounded, gotten lazy, had time limits set, school started... GAH! I can't believe I'm even still doing this... but of course there would be letdowns from certain people if I decided to quit this series, so what the heck. I'll tryyyyy to work faster, but there's this disorder I have called PROCRASTINATION, as I'm sure all of you know XD

I'm so sowwy D:

BUT! To get this story noticed a bit more, I'll add a pointless one-liner as a new chapter for every correccted chapter I post. Then it will be on the front page when it's new, hehehe =w=

I'm proud of this chapter! HALLELUJA! Read on!

* * *

><p>Chapter 5<p>

Lake Michigan was just passing by beneath them as the plane flew smoothly over the earth, intended to land in Paris early tomorrow morning. Megamind had a firsthand look, since he had won over Roxanne and claimed the window seat before she could. He'd been staring out the window for a while,now, in an attempt to not have to look at Roxanne, since the silence on the plan was becoming deafening, and slowly made things a lot more awkward.

This, of course, made him worry again.

He'd done as much research as he could on Paris, and had seen many pictures of the landscapes and cityscapes alike, but he had never physically been there. He could only hope that she'd like everything, and he could only hope that she'd return genuine love when he'd told her he loved her.

He had a reason for going this far. When he wanted something, when he loved the said thing, he'd stop at nothing to gain it, and he'd try any of his wild and flambuoyant ideas in doing so. That's just how he was, always trying, and getting back up after his failures.

Although, there were some failures very few could get up from, such as a faliure at having a mutual emotion towards someone you favored. It was especially hard not to get crushed by the failure for him, because there was just something he needed to break to her about him that… wasn't exactly human, or reversible…

He peeled away from the glass of the round window and glanced at the reporter next to him. Roxanne was reading a magazine she had brought along, and he briefly regretted not bringing something to occupy himself with. By now, the latté had taken effect on him and kept him from sleeping, so that wasn't an option either.

_I don't want room for failure. I can tell her at the right moment,_ he thought, trying to calm himself. Yes, if he just got a moment when they reached their destination, Roxanne would be content, which would pacify him in turn, leaving him able to admit this. But now, it was tedious to even think about, much less mention.

But there was that one time where he'd thought all that villainous charm had grown on her. She'd been strapped to a chair as usual, dangling over the alligator pit as listless and bored as all the previous times she'd gotten kidnapped and had to witness failure after utter failure of Megamind's otherwise genius evil inventions.

She stared down at the gnashing reptiles and blew her bangs out of her face when they bothered her. It had been a time whent things had gotten particularly awkward when there was no Minion around to distract his master from the ravishing journalist in front of him, and they were all waiting to call Metroman once the evil machine got started up completely. Minion had forgotten to warm the thing up as usual, and had kindly suggested some hot chocolate to pass the time. Usually, this was what went on in the midst of his plans as soon as it became a routine. The only things to spice everything up were flaunts of banter, attempts to scare Roxanne with torture devices he actually meant to never hurt her under any ciscumstance, and Metro Man's showy entrances once he reached the scene. There was banter between the villain and the hero for a while, and then just as Megamind seemd to prevail, Metro would destroy it all; every evildoing flathead screw until the bigheaded alien had been hauled to jail, and the battle documented on the daily news once again.

So repetitive.

Megamind didn't know this, but the things Roxanne actually looked forward to in a kidnapping were his little goof-ups in his villain-playing part. Whenever he let his true self shine through the mask of spikes and leather, she was excited. It was the only thing diverse about the entire ridiculous charade he'd insisted on keeping up for most of his life.

It was also the reporter's window to all feelings he accidentally slipped through. He was a rather bad actor for the supervillain part, since villains were supposed to be either emotionless and unreadable, or ruthless and cruel peppered with a small pinch of sultriness to add to the effect. For the most part, he played the sultriness right when he forgot about his composure during banter and lost himself to swooming over his captive, where his voice dropped to a velvety monotone and he suddenly inched a whole lot closer to her face, sometimes so close that Roxannne felt his breath creep down her neck as she tried to hold back goosebumps from it. But pretty soon he scooped himself back up and tried pretending tnohign happened, even though there was no hiding the wanting look in his poison green eyes and the telltale dusting of purple on his sharp cheekbones that absolutely gave everything away loud n' proud without a single word being uttered to prove anything. Actions were all it took, and for one, Roxanne knew firsthand they screamed much louder than petty words.

And what would the blueheaded genius be if he didn't know that too?

It was because of his better judgement that he sensed the littlest inkling of adoration in his captive for him. _For him._ When he'd realized it one day, he nearly called for Minion to arrange an evil wedding with a spike-adorned wedding dress for that brunette beauty, but against all odds, the alien decided to ask her about this.

So, she was dangling over the alligators with anything on her mind but fear. More like how she'd be late for another interview she had that day. When other people thought that was extremely cocky, Roxanne thought it was just making the most of the time enduring Megamind until metro Man swooped in as usual.

Minion was shunned out of the dim room, all the projection cameras completely shut off. Metro Man wasn't due until several more minutes when Megamind started to free the killer robot zombie bunnies in the city freeways, so the mastermind figured he had some time and summoned some brainbots to help him with another act.

Screwy and Metalrod rested on both of his already-adorned shoulders as he approached Roxanne, softly caressing the domes of his little cyborgs for effect. Screwey reached his tendril out curiously at its master's fingers, grasping for one, until the blue man pulled them away with a light tutting, and calmly glided over to a very uncomfortable Roxanne.

As the hotheaded journalist's chair twirled in his direction on the rope it was attatched to, she preteneded no to be impressed, but inside, her pulse picked up a bit of speed upon seeing the look on his face as he met her eyes with almost no expression while a braintbot tugged lightly at the leather of his spiky glove. Another half of her brain expected more showmanship on the way, which was a sort of letdown since she couldn't get enough of seeing him as he was.

The villain only needed this acted cover because he was incredibly nervous, and somehow it was just easier when… he wasn't himself.

Megamind often dwelled on how he'd learned that was so incorrect, judging by how the Bernard charade had went.

Looking back on the moment, he walked up on Roxanne and tried giving her his most narrow-eyed gaze ina futile attempt to intimidate her.

"What, didja get dirt in your eyes or something?" She'd asked, ruining the moment he'd aimed for, which made him get a royal attitude and roll his eyes.

"What are you playing at, temptress?" He spat.

Roxanne stared. "If Mets doesn't come soon, we could play at Go Fish. With Minion, of course."

"Don't wisecrack at me when I ask you something." The alien circled closer and closer around the reporter as the alligator pit closed up when he punched a button on his watch. His leather footsteps spiraled around and around until his nose was almost touching hers. Neither of them had any idea, but this closeness set their hearts skipping in tune significantly, though they were quite good at maintaining believeable poker faces.

"I'm afraid you'll have to be more specific, blue guy."

This time Megamind smirked, the blood in his body racing even faster at how she'd lowered her voice. _Was_ she doing this on purpose? Did she mean for her to weaken him with this infuriating charm? It seemed too obvious not to believe straightaway.

"I mean, why do you _have _to be a temptress like this? Do you intend for my plans to go awry whenever you look me in the eye?"

To get him hot and bothered even more, Roxanne did just that and stared into his exotic jade eyes that had a mere hint of lightning yellow sprinkling the iris in places. Megamind stepped back with a downward quirk of his blue lip.

"I knew it worked better than I thought." That smug smile on the reporter's face had both frustrated him, and intrigued him. He'd always half-understood why she never flinched anymore when he brought out all the flamethrowers and razorblades. Any person with half a brain would notice that he'd never actually kill a person.

This was a play. But one that he didn't know how to end with any finale.

He'd shrugged the brainbots off carelessly, shedding the skin he was trying to imitate. In that moment, he'd realized he wouldn't get a straight answer by being flambuoyant and infuriating.

Before he could think, he'd reached for her face and cupped it in his gloved hand.

"Why… are you so beautiful?"

For that one second, Roxanne looked taken aback, and even the slightest bit relieved at what he'd just said to her face. She puffed her hair from her eyes and smirked.

"Admit you have a crush on me, and I may just tell you what you've always wanted to hear me say…," she enticed much too irresistably.

As the lavender on his cheeks made itself completely clear, and he mindlessly drew closer, he nearly had two heart attacks in a row when a flash of bright white shattered through the ceiling with a boom and a cheesy smile.

And then it was jail time before he knew it.

The evil history was something that worried him in addition to an attribute he had he wasn't sure Roxanne would accept.

They'd been going out with each other for two months. This would probably be considered high time to open up to her a little more, and maybe even head into the 'girlfriend-boyfriend' territory following that if he planned right.

Megamind's confidence went up a notch as the plane passed over endless Atlantic ocean, and he turned around to slump back in his seat, glancing sideways at Roxanne, who was now staring into a compact mirror and frowning disgustedly at her face.

"Ugh… my makeup totally got screwed up…"

One of the things Megamind knew nothing about was makeup. Well, makeup on women, actually. He himself always drew a circle of eyeliner on each eye every day, and he didn't need much more than that because of his skin, which was a texture similar to satin. On some occasions, Roxanne had confessed her envy of his perfect skin and lamented about how dry hers was, but he didn't see one problem with her skin when she had zero makeup on early-morning kidnappings.

"Aw,no! This is terrible, I hate when I'm lazy in the morning."

"Roxanne, you look beautiful. What's wrong with your makeup?" Megamind inquired innocently.

"I have clumpy mascara, splotchy rouge, and smeared lipstick. You must be blind not to notice that," the reporter explained.

"Then maybe I am blind. You look like you always do, which is undeniably pretty."

The alien ran his hands gently through her soft and slightly-mussed hair and smiled genuinely, even though he knew nothing of that would help, and she'd still get up from her seat and go to the plane's bathroom to get a view in a proper mirror so she could fix whatever was wrong with her face. He truly saw nothing wonrg, but then again, she was a woman, and they were usually sticklers for beauty.

He was left alone for the moment while his crush went to tweak her makeup. Megamind didn't like being apart from her, even if it was for a moment. The trip they were about to take would allow him more time to be close to Roxanne, and once he got used to that closeness, then he'd make his move. He was perfectly capable of this.

"Ok… yes, I can admit. I can admit this." The blue man's long legs shoved up against the bottom of the seat in front of him as he slid way down in his down, trying to get comfortable in the position. Stupid latté; he needed to sleep.

Megamind pulled his trench coat tighter around his slim body and hunched his shoulders, then tried leaning his head to the right and closing his eyes. This was hard without one of those travel pillows that had slipped his mind, but he certainly wasn't thinking about those things the other night when brainbots started going kamikaze all over the Lair.

Just as his eyes were about to shut completely, a bright flash of color right next to him snapped them back open. What now? As far as he kneww, that seat was empty, and-

He sat up as quickly as he had settled down once he'd gotten a good look at what had disturbed him, and what he saw almost made him scream in disgust. A tall, candy-floss blonde woman who was impossibly skinny was standing right in the isle with cold eyes drilling into the shocked alien, and what she was wearing should have been deemed illegal. There was tulle everywhere on her dress with sequins nestled in all the ruffles, and the makeup on her face was even ghastlier than Roxanne had claimed hers to be. The lipstick was vibrant green, the eyeshadow swept across her face like spread angel wings, and there was possitively too much rouge on her face that had been mixed together with other colors. If there was one thing Megamind was persnickety about, it was the way people presented themselves, mostly in terms of dressing, and this lady was unquestionably nutty by observation.

But the word 'nutty' seemed too weak of a description once his eyes fell upon the dagger snug and cozy inside the leather sheath around her petite middle with carvings along the brushed wood handle. This sight made Megamind back up considerably, and he craned his neck to look at the cabin full of passengers who seemed not to notice a thing except he himself, but they were trying hard not to stare. The ex-villain tried looking back at the monstrosity of a female before him, and clamped his hands firmly over his lips when he was abruptly met with her cruel eyes, now boring into his from inches away when she'd been feet away, maybe two seconds ago.

He wasn't going to scream. She'd be gone soon.

He scrunched his eyes shut for five seconds, and when they flew open once again, she'd fled.

"Hoo… ah… my god…" Megamind sank back into his seat, hands still trapping his mouth shut. He hadn't realizede he'd gotten this little sleep. Usually his hallucinations were smaller things, and not things that even scared him. They were more strange, and just annoyed him, but this…

He jumped a little when he heard footsteps coming his way, but it was just Roxanne having returned from cleaning up her makeup. She sat down next to him calmly until she looked at his face, and then she crossed with worry.

"Um… why do you looked so… scared?"

Megamind looked at himself and realized he was squeezing his hands tighter than ever on his mouth, eyes squinted and hunched over in his chair. He righted himself, but tried to answer Roxanne.

"Herm, um… more hallucinations would be my best answer."

"You told me once that they never scare you, and you look pretty shaken."

He gulped, his muscles shaking a tiny bit as he suddenly remembered Roxanne back inside the airport as he returned from Starbucks, looking a bit less flustered than he did, but enough for him to wonder about it.

"Roxanne…," he said in a low voice, "tell me exactly what frightened you in the airport. I don't care what your explanation is, just tell me." He recalled that she'd mentioned something about a woman, but trailed off, dismissing the explanation as silly.

A connection between that and what he'd just seen brimmed in his mind.

"How will that help?" the reporter questioned, wanting to avoid the subject.

"Just tell me and don't leave out any details."

Slowly, Roxanne described the woman she'd seen just as he'd been coming from the coffee shop, and with every explanation until the last aspect she told him about, he grew more and more anxious.

They'd seen the exact same thing.

The couple was speechless as their thoughts processed this new information.

"It is possible that… two people can share the same unreasonable hallucination?" Roxanne asked hesitantly.

"I've never looked into it, but I don't believe it's common at all. And since when do you hallucinate? I'm the one who gets them."

His muscles were tense, and his blood was still pounding. They both desired to dismiss this whole thing as some insane mishap that wouldn't happen again, but if they had both seen the exact same person, then there was probably something more behind it.

"But if she's real, then how did she simply walk into an airport with a legitimate weapon hanging in plain sight? Seems pretty unlikely," Roxanne pointed out, thinking hard.

"Except," she added, "no one around her even glanced her way. It was like only I saw her."

"No one took notice of her just now, either. Because she was just here, and that costume she was wearing was too atrocious to be called clothing," Megamind said.

Their voices had lowered down to low whispers so nosy people couldn't come along and hear their conversation and start asking.

Roxanne looked down at Megamind's gloved hand resting on the armrest and noticed his fingers were still trembling and twitching. Once he took notice of where she was looking, he stuffed both his hands in his coat pockets.

"I'm sorry, I… just don't know…"

The reporter didn't want to stop inquiring, but judging by how Megamind was so shaken by this, she decided to ponder it herself and let it be for now. Indeed this was something she knew he wanted to furiously discuss as much as she did, but the problem was that there was just no rationality to be seen in any possible answer as to why they had both spontaneously seen an unrealistically garish woman with a knife strapped to her bony hips.

The new hero had just never seen something disturbing like that in any hallucination, no matter how many nights in a row he'd been a slave to his work and no matter how little coffe was within reach to make up for it. Something beyond her Halloween costume of an outfit, long, sheathed dagger and horrendous makeup job bothered him, not because there was a wild possibility of her _not_ being a vision, but because of some even more preposterous theory fluttering around in the back of his mind where bad ideas were discarded, but never nearly forgotten.

He was getting this gut feeling that the woman was evil in some way. Even thinking that for a second made him want to laugh insanely. The only proper explanation for something like this was that the woman was a freak illusion, and nothing else; but even as he assured himself, the wrenching feeling seemed adamant about settling itself cozily in the pit of his stomach to bring him disquiet.

The blue alien attempted to calm himself by looking back out at the infinity of blue lanscape that was the ocean thousands of feet below them. He remained that way until his eyelids grew more and more difficult to keep open, and by nightfall, he slept soundly.

* * *

><p>Megamind slept soundly until a nightmare roused him from the peaceful state and brought him even more wrath.<p>

The fear lifted him slowly from the silent darkness that he had been quite comfortable in, and then instead replaced the peace by wrapping over it and suffocating him until he sat in a moonlit breadth dotted with wilted tree saplings and rock-hard earth as dehydrated as a crop with drought. He was dizzy in the dream when he looked skyward at the starless sky, and the full moon began to dip and spin. Eventually he became too dizzy to hold himself up anymore, and placed his bulbous head on the solid ground to see if it would fix his vision.

Instead he sensed someone drawing near him.

Her footsteps were long and hollow, evenly spaced and confident. The shiny dagger she gripped in her dextrously murderous hands was craving to sink its blade deep into someone's innocent little chest and kill them with blissful cries of agony. Why would she do this to people, he wondered, as his dizziness worsened until he saw three blonde women standing above him instead of one, which in turn tripled his terror.

Her tongue moistened her snide lips in a snakelike manner as she descended upon his lithe little body, which was currently unable of any movement to keep her from killing. The woman snickered evilly despite herself. It was as if massacre brought her joy.

The pain that rocketed through all his nerves as the razor-sharp blade began sinking into his tender flesh was unbearable, yet he couldn't scream. He only made an astonished expression much like a doll's face at the intensity of the pain he felt. It was beyond the pain of his childhood in prison. He'd always thought beyond that magnitude of pain would be impossible to live through.

And he was dying. When the next stab came, she took pride in plunging it into him with a magnificently deadly swoosh that echoed through the icy air until it was punctuated by a solid _splurch._ A couple more times, she took a swing. He'd never seen so much red in his life flowing freely from the cavern she'd made in his chest, squirting and spurting and feeding the poor, dry ground he laid upon. At least it was getting something beneficial from this. Benefitting from his loss.

Was that what happened when tragedy passed? Did someone, someplace, always get some sort of twisted pleasure from the suffering of someone else they might even be leagues apart from and be a complete stranger to?

And what if the person benifitting loved you?

The blankly astonished look on his face lingered as the blood drained from his body and left him as a porcelain blue corpse with a only a shred more of life in it. It was foolish to be wondering about such a thing when his life was ending, and as the last stab went through him and the last fountain of crimson went airborne, she finally spoke.

"This is pleasant. You're finally dead, what a surprise."

Her voice was creamy, yet it didn't know any compassion or kindness. Amidst the trickles of blood streaming out his lips, he said in reply:-

"But Narcissa… you were never…"

If only she'd spoked earlier. Now he had run out of time. Before he finished the sentence, everything shut down inside him and faded to black. Then the sucking sensation arrived, and before he knew it, he was back awake and feeling more physical, but the fear was just dawning upon him newly pampered and nurtured.

" . , no." A very shaken Megamind mumbled as he clutched at his chest in a paranoid gesture to check for open wounds that were nonexsistent. Once he confirmed it was only a nightmare, he only calmed by an iota as thoughts plagued him in the darkness of the cabin.

Quickly, he checked his faintly glowing watch strapped to his skinny wrist. In Paris time, it was 1:30 in the morning. He hadn't kept track of the time it was in Michigan, so he was discombobulated when he got the startings of jet lag by not being familiar with these new times in Europe.

What he was more focused on now was the nightmare he'd just escaped.

It was the woman he'd seen hours ago tearing him to shreds while he just let her kill him like he was an emotionless doll. He had a face like a doll. Unreadable and placid, like he had no care in the world. Why had he been so calm in that dream setting? He hadn't even had the urge to scream or fight the dizziness and run away. That's what he would have normally done had a situation such as that ever happened upon him, but in this dream… he'd just died wordlessly.

As big as his head was, Megamind still had a humanlike trait he hated to be stuck with. He had a lot of trouble remembering exact details of any dream; good dream or nightmare. He sometimes also remembered them in black-and-white, and he knew perfectly well he only dreamt in color.

That asset caused his brain to tap into the brightest color there had been in the dream. Dark scarlet, the color of his own blood spraying the ground with the passionate hue. Megamind hadn't had a dream like that since his childhood in prison, after which he'd willed himself to stop having nightmares, and for all the years after that, it had worked effectively. He'd nearly forgotten bad dreams had existed until just now after being jolted awake by the paralyzing fear he now felt.

The perturbed alien folded his skinny knees up to his wiry chest and started shivering like a small dog, occasional heavy breaths huffing through his teeth, which added to that canine effect. He felt like panicking, but stayed in his seat and stewed in the questions he had whizzing around in his head so badly, he was almost dizzy like in the nightmare.

The illusion of the woman he'd seen earlier in the day had invaded his head and started to slowly kill him. And he'd called her 'Narcissa' in the dream for some reason. Odd.

Out of paranoia, the alien's thoughts switched to the possibility that maybe this 'Narcissa' was less of an illusion after all, but no matter what rational part of him laughed stoically at the ridiculous oucome, the fear was winning out. Negative feelings always won out if he didn't resist them, and it was hard because fear had always been in some part of his life. He'd learned to accept it, but at times, he just curled up on the couch at midnight wide awake and staring at the industrial walls of his Lair, spasming at every small noise he heard and every little dash of color that danced before his eyes.

He dragged his tired hands over his face and inhaled deeply, drawing in the scent of people and old upholstery. Everyone on the plane was asleep, including Roxanne in the seat next to him, her legs stretched in front of her, and her pretty head over on one side, cradled by that travel pillow he'd neglected to bring for himself. Now that the blue man realized it, he did have a faint pain in his neck muscles for sleeping without cushioning, and if he didn't care for Roxanne so much, he would have snatched that thing away and used it to try and fall back asleep.

Sleep seemed so unreachable now that he'd been rattled by the nightmare. The eerie silence of the plane didn't help him, no matter how relaxing the soft hum of the engine was. The hum reminded him of Narcissa's voice as it hummed along while her dagger drove into him…

Clutching his oversized cranium in his slightly sweaty gloved hands, he sighed heavily through his nose as he became aware of how muddled his mind was becoming. Occasionally fear made him constantly paranoid, but Megamind had to put his foot down when it became ridiculous. Sure, he was childlike in how he acted, and sometimes his judgment was like that of a youngster, but he did know the difference between impossibility and absolute certainty. He had to keep that in mind since he had achieved success in so many other "non-evil" inventions that now made him millions. Personally, the man didn't believe in magic or that sort of thing, since his mindset was so directed towards whether something would be scientifically possible or not.

And this prospect that the Narcissa figure could be a real person was complete drivel. She had an appearance equivalent to a lunatic stage performer for a lunatic play with a lunatic title and lunatic plot. Who cared if the dagger she brandished was real or not; there was no denying that the only real reason for her appearances was the result of how scatterbrained he'd become because of his trying to impress Roxanne. An attempt at ruffling his feathers.

Roxanne…

Megamind's bright green eyes darted to his right, and again faced the reporter silently asleep, he mouth just slightly open as her petite upper body rythmically pumped up and down as she breathed. He'd only ever seen her asleep when he kidnapped her in the middle of the night, or at the crack of dawn. All the other times, her head was covered with a bag, or stuck in a surprised expression when she was sprayed in the face with the chloroform. He'd never seen her peacefully asleep for long, since her eyes would flutter awake and she'd start complaining with a sour face at how he was her number one cause for lack of sleep, and therefore poorer performance at work the following day. Deep down, the ex-villain had felt kind of sorry, but the evil show had to go on, as he'd put it flambouyantly before stiffly whirling around to begin with the useless attempts at scaring Miss Ritchi with the blinky dials and overused levers that had been yanked hard one too many times.

This time she was sleeping soundly and uninterrupted, so he felt a bit guilty when he got a sudden urge to wake her up for comfort. Though it seemed silly for him to even think about waking her after a nightmare like a small child would do to their dozing parents at midnight, something was nagging him to do so since Roxanne had been a bright light at the end of the tunnel for him from the moment they had started the regular kidnapping routine. Contrary to other human women, she was difficult to scare, and she stopped screaming at all his torture devices by the third kidnapping when she'd supposedly figured out that he was predictable, and not a very convincing supervillain. Maybe that was what had caused Megamind to take such an interest in his captive when he wasn't supposed to… and it was that knowledge of such a forbidden and unlikely attraction that made him love her even more just when he'd assumed he simply wasn't attracted to humans.

From the moment he'd turned good, he knew he had a chance with Roxanne, and now a few months later they were dating. Now they were on a plane to Paris.

A bit more hesitation, and the alien slowly reached for her sleeping figure and tapped her on the shoulder gently. Maybe she could be of some comfort.

The light tap did nothing to disturb her slumber, so he placed a whole skinny hand on her and shook gently, retreating backward a bit when she wriggled in her seat. The brunette head turned sluggishly to face him, and her blue eyes opened in slits.

"Yes?" She said in a tired voice, yawning heavily. "Good god, what time is it?" Roxanne took a quick glance at the hero's watch. "One in the morning?"

"Um… yes," he confirmed quietly, a bit apologetic at how he'd woken her from much-needed sleep. He felt more gulit waking her up now that there was almost no reason for it, since in his evil days he needed her to wake up and see his magnificent faliures at beating Metro Man. Right now she was just missing out on rest, but…

"What's the protocol for dealing with spontaneous nightmares?"

He'd just blurted it out loud with no warning, not knowing what else to say besides that and all those fancy words. Sometimes the source of awkwardness was his use of long words when he didn't need them, but it was a habit mostly exerted when he was especially uncomfortable or nervous or embarsased.

Roxanne's eyes suddenly bothered to open fully when the words tumbled out his mouth. Giving him a slightly confused glance, she asked, "Nightmare? About what?"

"Oh, well… you know, obviously it wasn't a normal nightmare filled with a monster tailing you while you scream in terror… in fact I didn't scream at all…"

The reporter leaned forward and placed her square jaw in her hands, in turn placing her elbows on her thighs and tilting towards the alien expectantly.

"Tell me about it, Megs," she said bluntly.

Her tone was only a little bit annoyed, but he understood because she'd been in deep sleep. Her eyes were not harsh, though, they were a bit lidded to show gentleness.

Surprisingly, at least to himself, he didn't freeze. Instead he was relieved as he had partially thought he would be if he had woken Roxanne up to vent after a nightmare. The first one he'd had in a long time.

The shaken alien untensed his quite locked muscles and sighed through his nose defeatedly. Little by little, he started to inform Roxanne on the details of the nightmare, down to the agony of the stabbing to his chest and how he'd remained motionless through his 'death.' For a few instants, he laughed inside at how unrealistic the nightmare was, but he couldn't unpeel from that dread slipping into the pit of his stomach from the delusion. His abdomen was even a bit achy when he pictured the nightmare again, and especially when he centered on the ruthless face of the so-called Narcissa. Even so, it was still just nonsense in the back of his mind…

After he'd finished retelling the quick but violent events, he felt a strange combination of just a thred more relief, and an urge to vomit having to picture the blood flying as he spoke of what he'd seen to a shocked and wide-eyes reporter insistently leaning more and more towards him until he'd finished talking.

"…And… that's all that happened."

The brunette blinked and put the side of her finger to her lips uncertainly. Sure,she was plagued by a nightmare or two every now and then, but nothing as severe as what the ex-villain had just described.

"What… do you think triggered this? Do you even… know?" She whispered slowly. Megamind's poison green eyes turned to look her in the face, shining with a film of fear as he searched his memory.

"No, I don't. Nor do I know what brought on the double sighting of the… _thing._ I don't even know whether I should pass it off as some unlikely and highly strange coincidence."

Roxanne looked with concerned eyes as the cogs in his head tried desperately to turn and come up with some magical answer that would resolve their furious curiosity of the gaudy woman that had appeared before them both earlier. Obviously there was a lesser chance that this was a hallucination, since they'd seen exactly the same thing, and now to make matters more undefinable, Megamind had just had a nightmare about the imaginary woman slowly murdering him. Nothing even remostely fit together, not even in his genius overgrown brain, even though it was still clouded by terror now. He could still feel his knees knocking together at the thought of Narcissa's face again…

"You know… I'm starting to wonder if the explanation isn't exactly possible, you know, in your mind. You're directed to solve problems by finding out legitimate answers and facts, unless you're desperate to solve a problem, right?"

Megamind chuckled awkwardly. "Sadly yes, I guess that must be true in my case."

Roxanne brushed her bangs aside thoughtfully, unaware that it was a sickeningly adorable gesture to the blue alien beside her, but prepared to say something more. "Well… I'm just wondering if it's one of those things that's just too unclear to get to the bottom of. That's happened countless times at the station's gossip section when they intercept some suspicious-looking celebrity shot, and can't figure out what they were doing in the picture. If they can't find out, or get too lazy to bother, then they just make up something scandalous and announce it hours later on the afternoon news. That's what most of the hollywoood fiascos are all about…"

Megamind nodded in absent agreement, tilting his head backwards to stare at the smooth dome of the low airplane ceiling as more images from his dream attempted to plant more fear inside of him. The alien scrunched his eyes shut tightly, trying to word them off, but even though they didn't flood inside his head full-on, they taunted him by flashing for brief moments, and then going way back to the corner of his mind where he could barely see them like a child playing a rampant game of hide-and-seek in an enormous house with millions of hiding places.

Roxanne did have a point. As realistic as he wanted things to be when he was being serious and not hyperactive and childlike, he did use that reason for inexplicable things as a last resort for him to believe. It was just that, if something just wasn't that realistic or reasonable, he didn't see why it would happen at all…

Rubbing his eyes tiredly, he slumped in his seat, and exhaled shakily. If he tried prodding this any more, he thought, then he'd end up going in relentless circles with theories on whether to believe or not. It's be hard to dismiss Narcissa as a crazy delusion, but for now, it seemed like the most sensible choice to let it go and think about Paris instead, since originally that was the only thing supposed to be filling his mind now, not to mention how he'd go about confessing love to Roxanne and explaining that one natural trait he had in the gentlest way possible…

For the moment, his fear subsided as his brain was more focused on sleep, and apparently the brunette beside him had the same idea, for she began to adjust herself in a stretched-out position as her eyelids began to drop slowly.

"Since I have the same problem, I have to say, I have no idea what's going on, but it'd really be best to forget it, Megs." She gave him her best apologetic look that she could give with her crystal eyes falling back to sleep, and with that, she turned her head forward and tried again at rest.

The blue man at her side pulled his skinny legs up to his chest for warmth, and possibly more for his own comfort. Roxanne had been nice to talk to after a dream like that, just her comforting voice alone, but he hadn't gotten anywhere with an explanation for Narcissa. Something was still nagging him in his head that the figure could have been a real thing, but at the same time, the idea seemed plain impossible. Plus, after a while, this infuriating concept turned too circular for him to properly concentrate on, so at last, he let it drift off to somewhere else.

Megamind placed two fingers to his temple.

"My mind is completely—"

"Peculiar?" A familiar voice finished for him. "I've caught you saying that a couple times, so don't worry."

"I was about to finish that sentence alone," he pouted to Roxanne, who wasn't quite asleep after all. The brunette laughed through her nose at his little protest, able to imagine his pout without even seeing his face.

"Just get some sleep. We'll be in Paris eventually."

A warm pressure snaked around Megamind's spindly arm and hooked into his elbow. The reporter's arm held his snugly and lovingly, knowing this wasn't the utmost comfort she could give him alone, but it was something, and that something soon started to spread its kind, reassuring warmth in a comfortable little ray of light inside the blue genius which nestled right in the middle of his chest and drove out the bad fear.

Ah, light. At times it seemed like such a luxury after being blinded by the cold hands of even brief pitch-blackness.

"Hm, yes, we will." The exhausted alien agreed in a barely audible voice as Roxanne's head settled a bit closer to him in a now official attempt at sleep. Now that his head had been mostly cleared, he lazily came to realize his eyelids were heavy, his limbs leaden with need for sleep. He'd be happy to oblige to that requirement for as long as possible, nightmare-free. Preferably, he didn't feel like dreaming tonight in general, and only desired blank, quiet peace.

Megamind's venomous, and somewhat glow-in-the-dark eyes lost sight of the world, and tucked themselves neatly back into his skull as his frail body's wish for rest was fulfilled heartily, staying fast asleep for the remainder of the night.

And not a single memory of Narcissa was let through by that enduring coziness Roxanne's prescence had introduced, and quite honestly, he had forgotten all about the deal by the next showing of the sun and its pearly morning glow.

But in even more earnestly, it would be anything but forgotten about much later.

* * *

><p>DUN DUN DUN CLIFFHANGER, been there, done that. Bleh. Did you like? Did I aqcuire a new fan or two by doing that sneaky little trick to get in the front page? I dunno. Probably not. But there may be a little possibility...<p>

And I'll see y'all when I bust my butt over to fix chapter 6! Which will take a shorter amount of time, hopefully, but with me, don't expect one in the next week XD

I shall now go and eat lunch.


	6. Chapter 6

WAH. Why does it take me so long to correct... this chapter seemed mediocre... but I HAD to finish! I have not updated in over a month, and I hate it...

I still have to write the sequel. *shot*

I wanna write the follow-up, but I just can't bear it when I know the previous wrok is total CRAP! I hope I can stop correcting soon...in the meantime, have a brand-new chapter!

* * *

><p>He was groggy.<p>

Apparently the aftereffects of shocking nightmares was enough to worsen jet lag by a lot, and when the light of dawn seeped through the little window next to him, all he wanted was to sleep for another ten minutes. Or more possibly, an hour.

In the back of his thoughts, a weak little voice begged him not to be lured over by the comfort of more rest, since today was a pretty big day for him. They were officially out of America and in Paris; one of the world's more glamorous cities. It was refined, exotic and perfect to entice Roxanne to him once he was in the correct position to claim his affection he had for her. The alien still only had a few vague idea on what he was going to do to get in said position. He had to mutter at how scatterbrained he could be, but after all, these were the thoughts that were flooding his head just seconds after waking up, and as mentioned before, his brain was in a horrible fog as of now.

Megamind sat up abruptly,and a surge of blood filled the backs of his eyeballs so fast he could hear it pounding in his ears as well, and he winced in annoyance as rays of color distorted the world in front of him. Why did his body do that when he made a sudden move? That also happened when he had been sitting down for a while, and suddenly decided to lift his tiny butt off of the couch, or that chair, or whatever to get a glass of water, and suddenly he was stumbling around because of blood filling his skull. The alien had never bothered to look into that, since it was so irritating.

But on the contrary, a rather non-irritating face began to rouse from sleep right next to him, as he felt a warm pressure around his elbow start to tug away. Roxanne yawned generously and cracked her neck, awake from a long night's sleep, but looking just a little tired, still.

Despite that groggy look Megamind also supposed he had, she grinned at him, and somehow just her eyes spoke her excitement instead of opening her mouth to speak it instead.

What did come out of her mouth after that was a little less pleasing.

"Over that nightmare yet?"

If possible, the blue man's eyes became more sorry-looking than they already were, and Roxanne immediately regretted reminding him about what he'd transpired the previous night. Of course even the slightest hint at some violent dream like that would bug him, it would bug anyone. What was more, all he and she had to be feeling right now was a calm sort of vacation-y feeling like you were supposed to feel on a plane to the other side of the world. Reminders of negative things were just…inappropriate.

Roxanne winced. "Ok, I'm sorry. Forget I said that. I have a big mouth."

She changed the subject.

"You up for the day, or need more sleep till we land?"

"Sleeeepy," Megamind whined, his voice thick. Stubbornly, he yanked Roxanne's arm back to where it had been before, loosely wrapped around his arm as he slept through the previous night. Her arm had been comfort for him, so he could force the memories of his nightmare out of his head to get his body recharged properly, not to mention to dodge the effects of jet lag as best he could. Maybe it was his all-around constant lack of sleep, or maybe he wasn't used to a few more hours of it, but whatever the case was, he didn't feel his best at the moment. He didn't feel horrible; on a side note, that was good.

"How much time left until we get off?"he inquired lightly.

Roxanne glanced at her sliver watch. "About an hour. Don't you think you should eat breakfast first instead of make up for lost sleep? You'll feel better after you eat something."

Truth was, most of the time all Megamind ever ate were a donut or two and a latte for breakfast, and he stopped at that to cram his head with new blueprint plans, sporadically snacking on junk food inbetween. Whenever Roxanne came to visit, she disapproved of all the M&Ms he shoved down his throat when what he needeed was Five-Hour-Energy from all the sugar giving his short bursts of hyperactivity, and then he was crashed out on the couch, taking a nap at 1:30 in the afternoon.

Technically, Megamind knew he should eat, but he didn't know what he wanted. Cereal seemed boring. He couldn't cut waffles in half, and it was the same with pancakes, and scrambled eggs just slipped off his fork. He didn't even want to get started on bacon, which couldn't cut, and could barely be stabbed with a fork at all…

With a reluctant sigh, the alien pouted and then stretched his arms sky-high, cracking something in the process. Nobody could deny an empty stomach.

"I'll eat. I need the fuel."

"Yesterday, I only had half a bowl of cereal because I woke up so late, so I have a feeling I might eat big this morning. Honestly, not even that measly breakfast could support my legs after we got on this flight, so I don't wanna see you gorging on cupcakes or anything."

Megamind opened an eye. "Who said I have cucpcakes for breakfast? I have them at lunch."

Roxanne chuckled and shook her head. "Ok, ok, what I'm saying is, eat something that'll give you long-term energy, because we'll be walking around Paris a lot."

"Yes, your highness," the alien said, saluting dramatically, even though there was no need to talk back to reason like that.

After eating, getting off the plane, and taking a cab to the hotel Megamind had made reservations for, the couple checked in without an awful amount of trouble and gawking stares, and unpacked in the coziness of the quaint, but charming hotel room. Along the way there, in the lobby, the decoration had been considerably fancy, and upon taking a look outside, the hotel was pretty spacious, too. On the elevator ride up to the room, Roxanne had thanked the blue man over and over, mostly because no one had ever done this for her in her life, and another reason for her repetitive gratitude was excitement at how she'd spend her time here with him. Megamind was jumping all around inside, though, at the thought of spending all day with Roxanne for a week straight. It still almost seemed too good to be true. _She _was too good to be true.

Surely if he spent this much time alone with her, he could confess. For now he debated whether or not he was comfortable sleeping in the same bed with her, since a hotel room for two people obviously wouldn't have two single-person beds.

The bed was petite, nicely decorated, and was poised at an angle so that you could see the colors of the stained glass on top of the windows shine through on sunny mornings. Also, when Roxanne took a running leap onto it, it seemed like the kind of bed you could fall asleep almost immediately in.

The reporter sighed heavily. "I almost wanna go back to sleep right here," she thought aloud, staring at the ceiling.

Megamind placed his bags on the floor near one of the bedside tables and joined the brunette in her ceiling-staring, slamming himself on the bed even harder. It absorbed what little shock his lithe body gave.

Silence passed for a few crawling seconds. He didn't know whether to call it awkward or not, since they were in an enclosed space all alone, and were to spend that time with each other each night for a week, but thinking about Paris was… nice. Megamind had never really ventured too far from home in his life, and he never would have dreamed that Roxanne would go with him of her own will.

This proved that things could change at the snap of a finger.

A bit more time passed, and Roxanne sat up from the bed, heading for her bags to unpack.

"By the way, how long will it take you to unpack? I have a feeling you'll need my help with all that stuff you brought," Roxanne said, pointing her head towards the alien's bags.

"But most of it's clothing," he said, gliding over to one of the black suitcases and tugging it protectively over to himself. Soon enough, he had started to unpack other things, and within about half an hour, they were about ready to have lunch.

Lunch ended up being nice, still in the hotel, but nice anyway. Apparently, there was a tea room in the lobby with the miniature couches and tables and chandeliers on the high ceilings. The way everything was laid out made you feel tiny, like you were in a dollhouse, but with the smells and the quiet people around, it had a sense of coziness to it.

The only tea Megamind had ever drank was iced tea, back home when he ran out of coffee. It was the next best thing in his opinion, especially when it was hot outside, but hot tea had always seemed old-fashioned to him, like he'd look ridiculous drinking it out of a teacup.

It didn't matter to him anymore, since he and Roxanne were talking and laughing in a little alcove where they wouldn't be bothered except by a stray waiter or two. At the moment, he waited for his scalding hot cinnamon tea to cool down a little more, but he was tempted to gulp it up because it smelled so good and spicy.

Roxanne drank hers without hesitation. They had been discussing the possibilities of what to do over the week that they would stay.

"Eiffel Tower?"

"Yeah. I heard tomorrow they're setting off fireworks at 6:00 PM, and the best view is from the Eiffel Tower. I don't know if there'll be much room left, so maybe we could go there before dinner?"

Megamind thought. "That does seem like a rather nice way to start the night. Alright." He grinned kindly and carefully tested the temperature of his tea on the tip of his tongue, recoiling at how it still burned.

"How can you bear the heat of that beverage, Roxanne?" He demanded as he watched her take sips of her chamomile freely.

"Well, didn't you order yours lukewarm?" She paused, looking over the rim of her teacup.

The alien glanced at the liquid in the cup. "Well, no…"

Roxanne laughed and set her cup down. "It'll cool off soon enough. In the meantime, there are some little sandwiches here on this… whatever you call it." She pointed to the tiered tray with miniature foods stacked neatly on it and pushed it a little bit towards the alien sitting across her.

It seemed he only had eyes for the pastries on the tray, because as soon as his tea was cool enough to be consumed, he'd eaten most of the one-inch creampuffs that were there.

"Well, save some for me," Roxanne said as she quickly grabbed the last one and ate it. When she looked back up, she noticed Megamind looking out the window beside them and drumming his long fingers on his thigh, as if something had suddenly troubled him.

"Megs?"

"Hmm?"

"Something… wrong?"

He took a breath in, about to answer her, but hesitated for a moment, collecting his thoughts and thinking out his words. Reluctantly, he merely whispered the name.

"Narcissa," he said glumly, wincing slightly. He braced himself for Roxanne to be irritated at his attatchment to the weird happenings that had preceded their arrival to their destination, but his curiosity was always beyond him, even when he tried to forget. His large brain basically stored the thought away in some secret file cabinet he didn't know about, and later it presented the thought back to him like, _here's what you were trying to forget earlier! Don't worry, it's sticking around, and you may want to look at it again!_

Whenever that happened, it really ground on his nerves.

In this case, he was just… unlawfully curious. He pretended to be irritated, but he really wasn't.

Roxanne kept her tea in her lap, staring down at it while little threads of steam curled out of in into swirly whisps. Twisting her mouth sideways, her eyes darted to the right.

"I know what happened recently was weird and unexplainable, but… when neither of us can give a reasonable answer as to why we were seeing—and in your case, dreaming— this crazy woman in makeup," Roxanne shook her head, "we would just end up in annoying circles. I think I mentioned that before."

There was silence.

"There's really nothing I can think to do," she added.

Megamind swirled his tea around in the cup, staring at it blankly. He was beginning to doubt the theory that the woman was a figment of imagination, just because it had felt way more real than any hallucination, and the nightmare was gory and deeply disturbing. He questioned this being part of something he had consumed accidentally… somehow. But could Roxanne have consumed the same thing and seen the same person?

"I want to forget. This is turning my otherwise magnificent mind into a mess of confusion," he confessed, irritation blotting the tone of his voice. Bringing his cup of tea up to his lips, he hesitantly tested the temperature, and swallowed some, attempting to let the flavor calm him.

For a few minutes, the two stewed in their thoughts some more before eventually getting tired of the uselessness of a logical reason hidden in context somewhere, and instead they smiled happily to suck it up. Vacations were not a time to worry.

Not a time to worry…

* * *

><p>What do do?<p>

What to do with him, indeed…

She'd been feeling slightly better the last few days, but then a pang when she saw the alien. Those despised pains in her abdomen that made her double over in agony, and suddenly made her want to decapitate the nearest person… A part of her wondered when these inexplicable things would end, but most of her—the artificial part—didn't care.

The jumps were getting shorter now. Good, then she could complete her work without any distractions.

She already had two distinctive aliens. One of them looked like him, and the other… was just some freak. But if she could get this one and make the woman a pawn…

This plan would come together for sure. All she needed was some preparation.

After that, there would be certain peril for everyone.

* * *

><p>Bleh. I don't like it X(<p> 


	7. Chapter 7

Bleu Leather

Chapter 7

"Megamind, what do you have for me that's such a surprise?" Roxanne kept saying to the blue genius. Megamind was following behind Roxanne, covering her eyes as he led her outside the tremendous hotel. "Don't you dare peek", he whispered mischievously. He was keeping his fingers stiff, just in case his subconscious got the best of him and he raked his long, slender fingers through the cinnamon mop of hair without really meaning to (even though all of him desperately wanted to anyway).

Megamind led Roxanne further still. And then he stopped abruptly. "Open those eyes now", he crooned with a touch of excitement. He took his hands way from Roxanne's eyes, and she opened them eagerly. Looking around for a moment, she was confused about what Megamind wanted to show her. But then she shifted her gaze a little lower, and the gasped in happiness.

Megamind had rented a shiny black and blue Vespa!

"Oh, Megamind you didn't have to do that", Roxanne smiled. She was especially pleased, because of what happened a while back, years ago.

Roxanne used to have a scooter of her own, and it was a bright canary yellow. She had gotten so disappointed when it had gotten so old, it refused to work anymore, and she didn't know how to fix it.

Megamind took Roxanne by the hand, and sat her down on the back of the leather seat. Megamind sat in front of her and placed his hands on the handlebars.

"This will be fun!" He said enthusiastically. "I'll just cruise around, we can see all there is to see in Paris. And maybe we can find a good café or restaurant to go to later", Megamind suggested softly. Roxanne smiled and placed her hands around his waist gingerly. Megamind's cheeks turned lavender.

He withdrew a key from his pocket and stuck in the ignition keyhole. With a jerk of his wrist, the scooter started with a roar from the engine.

"Are you sure you know how to drive one of these things?" Roxanne asked with a hint of suspicion. "Of course", Megamind replied matter-of-factly. "It's just like the jetbike, only way smaller and less hovery", he said with confidence. He gave the left handlebar a twist. The scooter lurched forward suddenly, and with much speed. Megamind's feet lost balance on the side of the scooter, and stuck out for a second, but then he regained control of the vehicle. Forward he sped, blending right in with traffic.

Paris was amazing! There were statues, fountains, museums, and fancy buildings everywhere. Megamind took in the scenery when he could, while Roxanne felt as if she had to have eyes all over her head to truly see everything around her. Everything looked different from Metro City. It was sunnier, and had nicer weather. It was early spring in France, and it was a comfortable climate. Back at home, it was cold and snowy in fall and winter, and hot and humid in spring and summer. Very rarely was there a day with cool breezes and pleasantly warm air where people could wear jeans and a T-shirt. As the scooter pressed on, Roxanne could feel the air whipping through her freshly conditioned hair, and giving it a feathery look. She took a deep breath, and then let it out as a peaceful sigh.

She couldn't help but wrap her arms slowly around Megamind's slender frame. He felt warm, as usual. Roxanne caught a faint whiff of cologne when she inched her face closer to the back of his neck. Her left arm was clutching him close to her, enveloped around his torso, while her other arm was laid across his chest, and her hand caught on his left shoulder.

Megamind was blushing profusely. The magenta shade of pink was spread out across his smooth cheekbones like the plague. He nudged the side of his chin on Roxanne's hand, which was still gripping his shoulder affectionately.

Then he felt her soft lips give him a peck on the back of his blue head. A wave of energy spread across his body from the spot where she had kissed him. If it was possible, he blushed even more.

A long tunnel came into view down the road. Megamind turned into the curve that was ahead of it, and then disappeared into the dim tunnel.

The inside of the tunnel was lined with dozens of pearly, round lights. They gave off a hazy glow that was tinged with a shade of green. They cast a pretty pattern of light across the cracked asphalt, looking like real strung beads.

After a few seconds, they popped back out of the tunnel and into the warm sun. There was more activity on this side of the street; bicyclists, street performers, soft ballads that seemed to come from nowhere, and more fancy restaurants with creative-looking awnings and lampposts everywhere.

Roxanne couldn't be more at peace, and Megamind felt the same. She was like a child clutching their favorite teddy bear that they loved to death. Roxanne loved Megamind to death, and he felt likewise.

Roxanne massaged his front by lightly brushing the surface of his black v-neck. He could feel that comforting warmth he gave off even through the dark cotton.

Strangely enough, she couldn't feel his heart pounding like a timpani drum.

Just as she felt like she would melt down to the ground like hot fudge, an unusual feeling crept slowly and eerily across the back of her neck. She knew that feeling. She snapped awake from her amorous stupor and looked around frantically. The feeling was tiptoeing surely across her scalp, and the tingling got worse every few seconds. Pressure started to build_ inside_ her head.

And then she felt a pop.

Was she having a stroke? That was not possible! Why? Genuine panic rose inside her being.

It wasn't a stroke, thank the souls above her, because she felt the pops repeatedly. It didn't hurt, it was just annoying. Little balloons exploding inside her head continuously.

Narcissa.

It had to be Narcissa. The austere woman that pierced Roxanne's chest with a stab of pain like the dagger around the teeny tiny waist of hers at the slight mention of the fierce lady. She swallowed hard, and then slowly turned her gaze a bit to the left.

It _was_ her! Even though her fiery expression was masked by a bright red helmet decorated with rhinestones, Roxanne felt as if a million arrows were being shot at her through the plastic little window that allowed the wearer of the helmet to see. Narcissa's hair was whipping along behind her head in a flourish of honey-blonde candy floss, as she was astride a scooter as well. She wore a dark purple leather jacket with the collar peaked around her flawless neck. There were brooches and pins studded over almost every inch of the jacket, and there were golden bangles wrapped around her wrist along with a ring or two on each finger. Tacky. Moving downward, she had a miniskirt made of silk and cotton with strappy belts encircling her miniscule waist, one of them housing the long, sharp dirk she kept by her side at all times. This time, she showed her toothpick-like legs, which were as pale as her face. A tattoo was stamped across her right thigh, and it showed elaborate details. And finally, on her feet, were lavender purple platform boots that looked like 60's hippy garb, with all that fake-looking shiny leather and a cheap zipper. The platform heel must've added about four inches to her overall height, making her a smidge taller than Megamind.

Roxanne was not distracted by her glitzy costume. Even with the helmet on her, Roxanne was unable to control any of her limbs, or move any other part of her body otherwise. Her fingernails were digging into Megamind's shoulders, though she was not aware of it. She couldn't hear Megamind telling her to not grip on to him so tightly, and she could feel her nails start to pierce his skin. Roxanne's legs were tense, and her jaw was tight. She was almost literally frozen.

Wait a minute. Megamind had described this feeling to her on the plane. And she was living it right now. Megamind was NOT hallucinating from lack of sleep, that was for sure.

Narcissa's pink Vespa she was riding glided over closer to Megamind's. Roxanne was still paralyzed with terror. It was strange; Narcissa's presence was obsolete to Megamind.

Then Roxanne lost all sense of what was happening. She no longer felt astride a scooter, right behind the blue hero she so adored. Every other outside sound was omitted from her ears.

She could only hear the icy cold voice of Narcissa. Her voice as icy as her breath.

Then she spoke. Narcissa spoke not verbally, but her voice was loud and clear in Roxanne's head.

_Roxanne Ritchi._

Narcissa knew her name. Narcissa knew her name!

_Hand over that blue boyfriend of yours and you shall not be harmed further. _

What did this woman want? Megamind? What in the blazes was going on?

Roxanne tried to respond telepathically as she did her.

_No. _

Roxanne could feel Narcissa's growing rage. It was like a bonfire burning incessantly throughout her body. She could even taste a hint of smoke at the back of her throat.

_Very well. Roxanne Ritchi, you are doomed. You and the pity blue boy. I shall triumph eventually, and you will be sorry. Good day to you. _

Roxanne's whole body slammed back into reality like she had been kicked in the stomach violently. She blinked in bewilderment, trying to get the splotchy patches of color out of her eyes. Then she looked to her left where the Narcissa had supposedly been.

She was no longer there. No scooter, no billowy blonde cotton candy, nothing.

Roxanne started to hyperventilate in a panic. She clutched at her heart, which felt about to burst out of her ribcage. Her steely blue eyes were dilated with horror. Brushing her hair out of her sweaty forehead, she turned her head to look at where she had dug her nails into Megamind's shirt. There were still little impressions where they had clawed at his shoulders. Megamind was hunching them in order to ease the dull pain that still lingered from her nails.

"What was that all about, Roxanne?" Megamind asked suddenly. Roxanne was relieved to hear his voice. That smooth, unique voice she knew all too well. It sounded much more comforting than the resounding tone Narcissa had. It was still bouncing around her head, ricocheting around the recesses of her mind endlessly.

"Roxanne, are you listening? Why were you rocking the scooter? And why were you digging your nails into my skin?" Megamind's voice sounded again, which snapped Roxanne back to the present.

"Megamind, I don't believe you're crazy anymore."

"Umm… come again?"

"Narcissa paralyzed me like she did you on the plane! She was right next to me riding on a scooter! She's most likely gone by now!"

Megamind was instantly plunged into flashbacks of his nightmare. His throat went dry at the very thought of…_Narcissa._ Ew, that name, he would hate forever.

"Oh Roxanne…" Megamind was at a loss for words. There was just no way to express how much Narcissa was disturbing him like this. It was making him feel really paranoid, and especially protective of Roxanne. He bit his lip with uncertainty.

Megamind pulled over to the curb after considering what to say. He turned off the scooter, and it died down with a mechanical sputter.

He and Roxanne both dismounted the vehicle and stood on the sidewalk to face each other. Roxanne was frowning worriedly. "This Narcissa woman is really starting to get me disturbed, Megamind. Is she… a stalker?" Roxanne said the last sentence in an uncomfortable whisper. Megamind shifted his weight from one foot to another.

"When I saw her when I was sitting behind you on the scooter, she was, like… I don't know, she was speaking to me sort of…telepathically", Roxanne said to put it bluntly. Her lip curled up in an unsure grimace.

Despite this, Megamind was inwardly thinking, _Telepathy._ He wondered if any such device could be built from scratch to enable this superpower. He'd have to jot that down later. He was preoccupied with this Narcissa business.

"And she was telling me that she wanted to…err… take you, kidnap you or something, and I wouldn't get hurt."

"Did you telepathically try to respond?" Megamind asked hesitantly.

"Yeah, and it actually worked. I gave her a firm negative, and then she said…she would "triumph eventually", and that we were all doomed." Roxanne used airquotes as if to say that piece of information was unimportant, when it was important. She gave an unsure cock of her eyebrow to make up for it. Megamind looked aghast. If his nightmare told him about Narcissa correctly, that would have made total sense. She wasn't evil the way Megamind used to be. Megamind was evil because he had no other path to take in life, and he wanted attention. Narcissa, she seemed truly evil, and willing to hurt people if she had to. Megamind had never had taken lives during any of his past evil rampages. And whenever he had kidnapped Roxanne, he had never hurt her either. It was more of a courting session when he kidnapped her, because he had had such a crush on her for the longest time.

But Megamind was pensive. Why would Narcissa want to abduct him? Besides the obvious. It was most likely that she wanted to… experiment him in hopes of extracting superior knowledge from him, since he was an alien. People with enough power did that a lot, especially in movies. That was just too cliché, even for all the power and knowledge in the world.

Little did he know about Narcissa's museum of other unusual creatures that she wanted to add him to. And she was hoping that he had another superpower for her to steal from him like she did with every other creature she could. If only he knew…

"I honestly don't know what to say, except that we'll just have to be extra careful from now on", Megamind touched the back of his neck with his blue head angled down and his lurid green eyes looking into Roxanne's with sincerity. His expression apologized for not coming up with more earnest words. He was growing more protective and worried about Roxanne by the minute. He, too, felt in some danger. The scary essence of Narcissa was always gnawing at the back of his mind since he first encountered her.

But, hey. He was on vacation. This was a time of relaxation, not worry. He would completely omit Narcissa from his head whenever there was no reason to dwell on her. It was ruining the time he was having. There was still much more to do in Paris besides think negatively about this Narcissa character.

And he still needed to reveal the real reason he had come here to Roxanne. His undying love for her, his romantic desire. Roxanne was the yin to his yang; the one that made his life complete along with the brotherly love of Minion. It was why he was so enamored with her.

Yes, there was still more to unfold before him besides… heck, he wasn't even going to mention that honey-blonde woman's name.

Megamind took Roxanne's hand gently in his and guided her back to the scooter. He sat in front, she sat in the back. An eager grin split his face.

"You know Roxanne, it's not healthy to dwell on _un_healthy thoughts when it isn't necessary", Megamind told her. He had a charmingly entrancing look in his extravagant emerald eyes. If only Roxanne could see them from behind him. "Let's not forget that we are on vacation. Vacation is most definitely NOT a time to fret over things", he explained as if it were a lecture. He had a point, Roxanne thought. Even with Narcissa stalking them, it wasn't constantly and all the time.

She encircled her hands around Megamind's long, lean torso. Megamind leaned back a little to indulge it the contact for a bit more before firing the scooter back up again and driving off into the sunny afternoon, Roxanne encompassing her arms affectionately around her blue alien.

* * *

><p>"Megamind, you can be SUCH a princess sometimes!" Roxanne rolled her eyes at the blue hero as he maintained his stubborn composure. His long arms were crossed defensively across his small chest, and his eyes were narrowed.<p>

"No. That food is vile and disgusting. It is NOT going in my mouth anytime soon", he repeated for the third time.

Roxanne was daring him to eat escargot. They were at a downtown Paris restaurant; eating dinner in the cool, crisp evening.

And Megamind's only weakness tonight was that slimy cooked snail that people actually ate.

"And, Miss Ritchi, did you just call me a _princess_?" He added belatedly. He jutted his neck out incredulously. "I am not a _princess._ I just would rather not eat the vile and disgusting food you are now currently holding three inches from my face", He clarified. As Roxanne moved the forkful of escargot closer to his mouth, Megamind tilted his neck away. It was much like a mother trying to feed her baby sweet peas, and the baby was Megamind. Flat-out refusing to even taste that escargot.

Ugh, it looked repulsive. It was glistening in the moonlight, dripping in garlic sauce, oil, and melted butter. Even with all the exotic spices to make it more enticing, it looked like a greenish-yellow blob of unpleasantness. It even smelled sickening.

"Oh, Megamind, please! Look, I'm eating it!" Roxanne tried to encourage him by eating the snail herself, and making exaggerated sounds that indicated it was delicious.

_But how can you muscle your way past the gag reflex with…that? _He thought.

"Come _on._ One little lick, It's so good!"Roxanne stabbed up another forkful of the delicacy and held it closer to Megamind's mouth. He drew back again.

"So, what happens if I don't eat it?" He gave a sly smile and cocked his eyebrow. Roxanne's eyes looked playfully sinister.

"If you don't eat it, you don't get dessert", Roxanne decided. Megamind put on a look of mock devastation. His jaw hung open. "Well! I never!" He scoffed. He really did like sweets now. Dessert was good! As much as it repulsed him, he lashed his head forward and bit the escargot off of the fork.

He chewed it a few times before the overall taste truly hit him.

The taste! It was BEYOND disgusting! The snail tasted like rotten tuna to him. The garlic made it even worse. The food exploded in his mouth, sending a gooey substance running all over his tongue. It was warm and runny, and only added a worse taste to it all.

He gagged and sputtered. He reached for a napkin on the side of his plate and spit it out onto it, glad to get the vile taste out of his mouth. But the garlic made it linger, and he could even still taste it through his nose when he breathed. Balling up the napkin tightly, he shot a scornful look at Roxanne.

"That. Was. Disgusting", Megamind said 'disgusting' very slowly to make a point. Normally, he would have not had a problem trying new things, and especially if it was just a food. But the sliminess of the escargot was a red flag for him.

Well, no going back to the perfectly fresh breath he used to have. The garlic was stinging the back of his throat with the stench.

Ick.

"Drama queen", Roxanne muttered with a joking roll of her eyes. Megamind pounded the heels of his gloved hands on the table softly. "Just because I hate the taste of it doesn't mean you should hate _me_ for it!"

"As I said before: Drama queen!"

Megamind narrowed his eyes, slumped in his chair a little, crossed his arms, and blew a soft raspberry at Roxanne. She tried not to, but she burst out laughing when he did it. Her eyes were shining with mirth. At times, Megamind could be so cutely childish. It was one of those charming little sides of him that only fully showed through when he was around Roxanne.

And sometimes those sides of him were more sinister combined with a swirl of passionate love.

"Well, now that you've intoxicated my system with _ees-car-got,_ do I get my fair trade of dessert after we eat?" Megamind had a pleading, puppyish look in his gaudy green eyes.

"Yes, you may have dessert afterwards. Sheesh, I sound like I'm your mom, or something."

They both laughed heartily. Briefly, Megamind had wistful flashbacks of when he was eight days old, and being shipped off in an escape pod, hurtling at breakneck speed for Earth. Now that he considered it, Megamind wondered why his pod didn't blow up at the first contact with the ground.

The nostalgia was short-lived. As soon as Megamind stopped laughing, he took a look at Roxanne. Since they had gotten here, he hadn't noticed how especially…well…_ strikingly beautiful_ Roxanne was. Her cinnamon scented hair wavered in the very light breeze, and it glowed softly under the full moon. The glow bounced and shivered, as the moon was also reflecting in the nearby lake that overlooked the outside table they were sitting at.

And she had done her makeup perfectly. The volumizing mascara she had applied fringed her metallic blue eyes so that Megamind felt magnetized to them. And the lipstick drew maximum attention to the lips Megamind was desperately wishing to kiss. As a final touch, she had packed a dress that dipped down into a V at her neckline, and had a blue and red contrast that harmonized perfectly with her gold pendant.

If only the table they were sitting at were smaller, then he would've undoubtedly thrust himself for her and entwine her lips in his. Instead, he gazed at her with a goofy smile on his face.

Aagh, if only there were a foot and a half less table.

The two were worked out of their daze as the waiter approached, carrying trays of food. The waiter set down Megamind's plate, which was onion soup. I had little bits of meat and spices floating around in the bowl, and it looked MUCH more appealing than escargot. The white milky color, to him, indicated that it was probably delicious. Also, he had ordered some exotic white wine that looked good in the menu. The waiter poured it in his and Roxanne's glass, since she had wanted to try it as well. Speaking of which, she had also ordered for her dinner, Beef Bourguignon. She heard it was delicious and wanted to try it.

Which made Megamind go off like the living Wikipedia he was famous for.

As soon as he saw what Roxanne was eating, he aimed to start a conversation by telling her what the dish basically was.

As Roxanne took a bite of mushroom, Megamind leaned tentatively in with the look he always had when he wanted to let a wave of facts explode from his mouth. Roxanne paused, and smirked knowingly. She recognized that familiar gleam in his eyes, the slightly open mouth, and the very slightly cocked eyebrow.

"What set off your mental encyclopedia this time?" Roxanne tilted her head.

Megamind started talking. "Actually, this time it was your food."

"Huh?"

Megamind ignored her confusion. "Beef Bourguignon. It used to be a comfort food, once upon a time, but it has refined over the years and is now popular cuisine. Today, it has evolved into a French standard, its recipe having been codified by Chef Auguste Escoffier, who received the Legion D'Honneur in 1919 for his work in promoting French cuisine to the world!"

Megamind finished it all in one breath. This made him heave for more air a few time before he gave Roxanne a tired smile.

"…Well! That was certainly…drawn out of nowhere, wasn't it?" Roxanne masked her uneasy expression by taking a sip of wine.

"Actually, yeah…"

Roxanne's eyes opened a little wider. What he had just said sounded as if he had taken careful time to rehearse the speech from a script, or something. It was just another one of those "Megamind" features that made him all the more endearing.

"Speaking of getting drawn out of nowhere, I never really picked up the reason why you would do something so big as to take me to Paris with you. What inspired you?" Roxanne asked with a tone that sounded like she was giving an interview.

"Well, if you don't like it here that's fine, I mean—"

"Megamind!" Roxanne chided gently. "Don't jump to conclusions like that. I love it here", Roxanne reassured him by placing an affectionate hand on his. It was hard to turn down that sincere smile on her face. It made Megamind melt a little.

"Sorry", He shrugged apologetically. "You really seemed to like France. A lot of your clothes were imported from Paris. You shop at boutiques all the time. Exotic food is your forte. If I put that all together, the outcome for a perfect vacation would be Paris. And here we are." Megamind swooped his hand in a flourish to make a point. "And…that also explained the notepad I had dropped!" He smiled sheepishly. Roxanne rolled her eyes. "I knew you were fibbing!" she exclaimed. "But that was awfully nice of you. It's the perfect way to seize my weekend."

"Oh, it was nothing", Megamind was strangely bashful. This _was_ a wonderful vacation if you nixed the parts where Narcissa came in.

_Don't think about Narcissa!_

This was only the first day in Paris. There was so much more to see and explore.

Oh. And the declaration of love to Roxanne. Tricky bit.

Megamind supposed he could manage at some point. It was all about the timing. He had to wait for a precise, romantic moment to say it gently to her. It might even earn him a kiss. A longing, passionate kiss. Megamind would make sure to make it a memorable one.

_Oh, I'm daydreaming again, aren't I?_

"Nothing, huh?" Roxanne crooned. "No one's ever done anything this romantic for me. This is a big deal, Megamind."

"Really?"

"Yes! This indicates that you really care about me. Only you would do this for me. For anyone, really."

Megamind blushed a soft shade of lavender. It was barely visible in the darkness of the evening, but it was still there.

"Megamind… I…"

He tried to guess what was coming. Could she say it? Would it be possible? Why was she hesitating like this?

_Please say what I think you're going to say! _

"I like you….A lot." Roxanne tucked a lock of hair behind the shell of her ear. She drilled her lurid blue eyes into Megamind's. Not exactly what he had hoped for her to say, but it did it for him. It was a step closer to saying that she loved him.

_Wait, that's my job!_

Megamind settled for the next best thing. He squeezed her hand gently, and set his emerald green eyes on Roxanne's. "That's good, Roxanne."

"Mm hmm?" Roxanne hoped he would say the same as she just had.

"Because I like you too. A lot. It's another reason why we're here", he said lovingly. The half-lidded expression came over his eyes when Roxanne's glimmered with pleasantry.

"That's good, Megamind."

He squeezed her hand even tighter.

* * *

><p><em>When I was a young boy I was honest and I had more self-control if I was tempted I would <em>

_Ruuuun … _

_Then when I got older I began to lie to get exactly what I wanted when I wanted it _

_And I wanted it _

_Now I'm havin' trouble differentiating between what I want and what I need to make me _

_Haaappy… _

_So instead of thinking I just act before I have a chance to contemplate the consequence of _

_Aaaactions _

_And I will turn off _

_And I will shut down _

_Burying the voices of my conscience in the ground… _

Annabelle stopped strumming her guitar. This song she was picking up… what did it all mean? Along with a few others: Futuristic Lover, I'm Blue, and Never Knew I Needed. Flawed Design, the one she had been singing, told her about the past of…whoever was coming into her life.

Annabelle was a cloudsprite. All cloudsprites had a talent for music, and had a few other powers. Hers was unique. She called it, 'Fortune Song Cookies'.

This power allowed her to predict an important person about to enter her life through different songs that she picked up from somewhere, though she didn't know where. Whenever the lyrics got stuck in her head, she had no choice but to sing them out. Then after she had sung all the songs, she had this jumble of a puzzle on her mind to figure out…

_Who was that special someone that was coming in her life?_

She absently strummed her guitar while she thought. Flawed Design… that song seemed so sad. But that was the one that described the person's past, she knew.

A thought occurred to her. That person was most likely a male. After all, the song described what he was like when he was a child.

And then he grew up to be a liar. That was unfortunate, and just…well, sad.

But if the song described his past, that meant he had changed. That was good.

Ok, Annabelle had sort of deciphered Flawed Design. She moved on to Futuristic Lover.

_You're so hypnotizing _

_Could you be the devil, could you be an angel, _

_Your touch magnetizing _

_Feels like I am floating, leaves my body glowing, _

_They say, be afraid, you're not like the others, futuristic lover _

_Different DNA _

_They don't understand you. You're from a whole other world _

_A different dimension. You open my eyes, _

_And I'm ready to go, lead me into the liiight… _

_Kiss me, k-k-kiss me, infect me with your love and fill me with your poison _

_Take me, t-t-take me, wanna be a victim ready for abduction _

_Boy, you're an alien, your touch so foreign _

_It's supernatural, extraterrestrial. _

_You're so supersonic, wanna feel your powers, stun me with your lasers _

_Your kiss is cosmic, every move is magic _

_You're from a whole other world _

_A different dimension. You open my eyes, _

_And I'm ready to go, lead me into the liiight… _

_Kiss me, k-k-kiss me, infect me with your love and fill me with your poison _

_Take me, t-t-take me, wanna be a victim ready for abduction _

_Boy, you're an alien, your touch so foreign _

_It's supernatural, extraterrestrial. _

_There's this transcendental, on another level, _

_Boy, you're my lucky star… _

_I wanna walk on your wavelength, and be there when you vibrate _

_For you, I risk it all…all… _

_Ohhh! _

_Kiss me, k-k-kiss me, infect me with your love and fill me with your poison _

_Take me, t-t-take me, wanna be a victim ready for abduction _

_Boy, you're an alien, your touch so foreign _

_It's supernatural, extraterrestrial. _

_Extraterrestrial. _

_Extraterrestrial. _

_Boy, you're an alien, your touch so foreign _

_It's supernatural, extraterrestrial._

Annabelle finished the song, slightly frustrated. Her voice was more than perfect for sure, but it was hard to play that song on a guitar. The real song was more keyboard-y, and more techno.

And another thing that frustrated her was the fact that the songs she picked up could have different meanings. Sometimes they were literal, and sometimes they required much puzzling to understand the connection.

Annabelle wondered if the meaning of ET was literal. It would be pretty cool to meet an alien.

In the world she lived in, anything was possible.

Judging by some of the other lyrics, that alien was, without doubt, in love. Like, totally smitten. With who? She wasn't picking up any songs that described his partner.

She moved on the song called, I'm Blue. She rather liked that song. It was catchy. She didn't receive too many rap songs, so she sung the beginning of it.

_Yo, listen up, here's the story, about a little guy who lives in a blue world _

_And all day, and all night and everything he sees is just blue, like him inside and outside _

_Blue his house, with a blue little window, and a blue Corvette, and everything is blue for him, and hisself and everybody round, 'cuz he ain't got nobody to listen… _

_I'm blue, daba dee daba die, daba DEE daba die, daba dee daba die, daba DEE daba die, daba dee daba die… _

Annabelle actually got up from her seat and danced along to the song. The chorus would be stuck in her head for a long time, that was for sure. Even if the lyrics were odd.

Then she sat back down and got to business. That song could mean two things: either the man was obsessed with the color blue, or was suicidal out of severe depression.

Heck, his skin could be blue for all she knew. As she had mentioned to herself before, anything was possible in her world.

But since the song was upbeat, she supposed the color blue was his favorite color since birth.

That song was easy. One of the 'literal' songs that she liked.

Annabelle sighed dreamily as she thought about the last song. She had always loved romance. This song always made her cry. (Which was a problem, because she soaked everything. Whenever she cried, she cried hard.)

Never Knew I Needed. She even loved the title. It was just… Oh, it was so meaningful.

She played just a little snippet of it to hear the lyrics.

_For the way you changed my plans… _

_For being the perfect distraction… _

_For the way you took the idea that I had of everything that I wanted to have, _

_And made me see that there was something missing _

_For the ending of a first begin _

_And for the rare and unexpected friend _

_For the way you're something that I'd never choose _

_But at the same time something I don't wanna lose _

_And never wanna be without, ever again _

_You're the best thing I never knew I needed _

_So when you were here, I had no idea _

_You're the best thing I never knew I needed _

_Now it's so clear, I need you here always ._

Annabelle stopped strumming. If she sung the rest of the song, she would flood her half-decent room. Cloudsprites have a way of understanding the deep, true meanings of every song they hear. And Annabelle's emotions could be inflicted by songs she heard. If the song was angsty, she would lock herself up for hours and mope and cry. If she heard a happy song, then happy she would be. It couldn't be helped. That was why she refrained from songs that were about terrifying rage, or depression. I just came as a natural thing to her kind.

Ok, now Never Knew I Needed was a truly amorous love song. This guy that was coming into her life seemed really romantic. Maybe he had a crush on someone, or was dating someone whom he deeply loved.

He was probably dating someone. If he had a crush, Annabelle would've honed in on a song called Crush on You. That was the song she had received when she sensed Megan coming into her life. Man, if only she knew that Aidan liked her back.

Annabelle rested her chin on her guitar neck in thought. Again, she absently strummed the strings so her hands could be occupied. Then she ran her fingers over the carvings and designs that covered every inch of it. She had been playing the same guitar ever since she was old enough to have great dexterity.

"Flawed Design…" She finally said to herself. It was barely an audible whisper. She batted her violet eyes in vain.

A single tear trickled down her flawless, sheet white cheekbone. Horrible thoughts filled her head.

What if the person who was entering her life was anything like her? Annabelle swallowed hard. She could relate pretty well to every word in the angsty song. It was how she ended up being a captive.

A captive belonging to Narcissa.

The only reason she hadn't been locked inside her tortuous prison chamber was because she had toned down the rambunctious behavior for a bit. That was a rare thing for a Rebel. Eboni, Aidan, Megan, and Kaitoia had been sustaining riots for a while. They were going to be in their torture chambers for quite some time. Annabelle felt vile to be sitting in actual living quarters while they received moreagony and abuse. Narcissa had only let Annabelle back into her normal room conditionally. She wasn't being her normal, troublemaking self, so a prison wouldn't make sense. She was confined to the room until she made more trouble.

It wasn't in horrible circumstance, but it wasn't exactly a five-diamond hotel either. Some things were dusty and cobwebby. The mahogany on the four-poster bed was cracked in some places, and the sheets were wrinkly. The bathroom had a shower at least, but it could be leaky. So could the sink and the toilet.

Other than a few more downsides, it was a nice-looking room. Turquoise and gold tapestries hung from all walls of the room, displaying intricately woven pictures of clouds and monarchy. Why did Narcissa have to put up the tapestries depicting that? It made Annabelle terribly homesick.

Then again, Narcissa was completely evil. She wanted Annabelle to give off negative feelings so it would give Narcissa more energy.

That was why Narcissa also pestered her by playing sad, enraged, and equally negative songs that tormented Annabelle with an emotional roller-coaster.

Hey! These stupid living quarters were prisons in themselves!

As all these thoughts ran through Annabelle's head, she got angrier and angrier.

Then her scrawny body went limp.

Gingerly putting down her beloved guitar, she took a running leap into the saggy bed, buried her face in the dusty pillows, and sobbed.

* * *

><p>This was embarrassing. Megamind had forgotten about the fact that, in their hotel room, there was only one bed that he and Roxanne were to share.<p>

And one pair of childish pajamas. The only pair he owned. It was dotted with little radioactive symbols and such. The shirt had a plush neck collar, even. And there just had to be a midnight black cape tied in a knot around his shoulders.

As much as he loved capes, he decided to nix it to save the humiliation. He used his nails to pick apart the double knot until it was loose enough to untie. Gently, he folded the mass of fabric and laid it across his arm. With a deep breath, he twisted the doorknob of the bathroom door open, braced for taunting from Roxanne.

When he opened the door, Roxanne didn't look up from what she was reading. She was dressed in a silky, midnight blue pajama top with long sleeves and matching long pants. The material shimmered in the hazy yellow glow from the lamp on the side table. Megamind watched as those sparkly metallic eyes darted across the pages of her book. She seemed to be holding the book closer and closer to her face. Her legs were drawn up to her chest tensely. She was biting both her lips at the same time.

Either that book she was reading was terribly suspenseful, or she was simply not looking at Megamind for fear of bursting out in laughter because of his pajamas.

Megamind took a few stiff steps until he reached his side of the bed. Roxanne blocked the side of her face so she wouldn't make eye contact with Megamind. Behind the book, she was grinning and trying not to laugh. Megamind frowned and yanked off his slippers, which looked like little bats with red eyes and tiny little wings protruding at the sides. He tossed them scornfully onto the floor, quickly thrust himself under all the covers, and faced away from Roxanne. Magenta blush creeped up his face and spread all over. He wished he had just simple black fleece pajamas instead of these ones. If only it were comfortable to sleep in his spandex bodysuit he wore almost every day. It was too tight for completely free movement, and therefore provided uncomfortable sleeping.

Then again, most of his life, he had slept on scratchy, stiff cots in prison. And at the Lair, he had never really had an actual bed. He either slept on a couch or passed out on the floor, using his cape as a blanket.

Sheesh, he needed a bed! It was soft, and warm and nothing like the cold floor or a ratty old couch.

Megamind could hear Roxanne snort from beside him. He rolled his blue head over to face her, and saw that Roxanne was wearing an apologetic look on her face. For the first time, he saw her blush. She didn't blush an embarrassing purple shade like he did. It was red.

"Sorry, sorry, it's just… wow, I've never seen you in your pajamas!" Roxanne said. She allowed herself a little laugh. Megamind scowled.

"I hate these! I can't believe I don't have some other solid black ones like yours!" Megamind pulled the covers over his bulbous head in shame.

"Well, they might be kind of juvenile for you, but it's…cute", Roxanne said with an innocent shrug.

_Cute? Did she just call me cute?_

Megamind pulled himself up into a reclining position, resting his elbow on his pillow. "Ms. Ritchi, exactly how is this monstrosity", Megamind said, pointing to his pajamas, "cute?"

Roxanne closed her book abruptly. Cocking her head, she smiled and simply replied, "It means you're not all leather, spandex and spikes. Nobody can live in those clothes forever. Even if all those studs make you look incredibly striking." She made a flamboyant wave of her hand and darkened her eyes.

Megamind relaxed a little. His heart gave a little pirouette. She thought he looked good in spikes. Well, it was mighty true, if he did say so himself. He wondered when would be the right time to wear his neck collar that he had packed. It was one of his trademarks. He did fancy how the collar swooped up and then a little down so that it compromised attention with his enormous head. It provided his shoulders with leather padding and spikes. In the middle of where his collarbone was was his logo that was also a snap that held it around his neck. Paired with a billowing cape and spandex and custom baby seal leather boots, it was a very regal-looking costume.

But if he wore it just out and about in Paris, people would think he was a nut job, unless they had heard about him from somewhere.

"Incredibly striking?" Megamind mused. He decided to flirt with her a little. Just a little.

Roxanne colored slightly. She buried her acute nose back inside her book. "Well, don't you remember what I told you on the plane?"

Oh, yeah. Megamind melted a little remembering that Roxanne "had a thing for him." Then memories of kissing her on the cheek flooded back.

He scooted a bit closer to Roxanne. The rustle of the crisp comforter sounded as he moved.

"Could you say it agaaaain?" Megamind asked with a touch too much sugar. He touched Roxanne's arm with his finger and circled it around a few times. Roxanne recoiled a bit with a playful smile on her face. Then she narrowed her eyes and smirked. "Come on, Megamind."

"No, _you_ come on. Say it."

Roxanne wrinkled her nose and pouted, which only made Megamind like her more.

"I've got a thing for you, you handsome devil…" Roxanne mumbled, repeating two of the things she had said on the plane. Megamind broke into a goofy smile.

"Made you say it!" He punched her in the arm softly. Roxanne jabbed him back in the same fashion.

Soon, they were pushing each other playfully around the bed until Roxanne lost her balance and fell over on Megamind.

For one seldom moment, everything was silent. Megamind was transfixed by Roxanne's azure orbs that were her eyes. She had no choice but to stare back at those daunting, gaudy green eyes of his. Those eyes had always been that unique shade of green; a mesmerizing, neon hue of emerald that no human's eyes could ever look like. And no other eyes like his could spellbind Roxanne this way.

Her lips slightly parted, she moved her head tantalizingly close to Megamind. His long blue hand tenderly brushed her cheek and drew her nearer as he stroked the side of her face, captivated by her beauty.

Megamind closed his eyes and prepared himself for the feel of Roxanne's lips. They were already so close, and he wanted to kiss her desperately.

Just one more inch… their noses were already touching. Their foreheads were slid in place together. Megamind's other hand was gently placed upon the small of Roxanne's back. He could feel her warmth spread throughout his being.

Just a smidge closer and Megamind would be more elated than he would have been in years.

But then Roxanne stopped dead. Megamind's heart dropped into his stomach. What was possibly wrong?

Roxanne lifted her head away from Megamind halfheartedly. A broad frown tainted her lips. She gave Megamind a look that said, _"I'm so sorry. I just can't."_

Megamind sat up. He placed his hand on Roxanne's shoulder as she turned to get back into her part of the bed.

"Roxanne, is something wrong?" He asked gently. His voice was streaked with worry and a hint of sadness. He had REALLY hoped to get that kiss from Roxanne. It was another close call, where he thought for certain their lips would meet…but they didn't. Roxanne absently tucked her hair behind her ear. When she turned around, she was more than guilty when she glimpsed the hurt look on his face.

Roxanne blinked. She touched Megamind's hand, which was still on her shoulder.

"I'm so sorry", Roxanne mumbled softly. "I would've loved to kiss you, honest. It's just…"

"It's what?" Megamind's voice was a little firmer.

"Well, I'm just…not quite ready yet. Just… allow me a little more time to adjust, and then I'll gladly kiss you all you want. I hope you understand."

Megamind was thoughtful. "Really?" he said belatedly. "You really wanted to kiss me?"

"For sure", Roxanne assured him. She gave his hand a squeeze of affection.

"But until then, this will have to do."

Roxanne leaned forward to Megamind and kissed him on his large blue forehead. It was a pleasant, lingering kiss. The next best thing to on the lips, and it was satisfying enough. Roxanne could be a bit difficult to figure out at times, though.

_Then again, all women are._

With a slight yawn, Roxanne slowly pulled the sheets over herself and lay down on the soft pillows. Megamind did likewise. Then Roxanne reached out and turned off the lamp on the bedside table. All was black except for some moonlight slinking in through the large window that fronted onto the tiny little table with two chairs.

Megamind lay awake thinking until the jet lag caught up with him, and he fell into a dreamless slumber.


	8. Chapter 8

A/N Okay, now we're gonna get a little fluffy! :D I've always loved sweet little chapters like this. But first, Narcissa returns to haunt ROXNNE in her nightmares! J| Poor Roxanne and her tortured mind... anyway, we're cutting to the chase of fantasy VERY soon! You are going to hate, or maybe even love Narcissa's evil 'tude. ;)

* * *

><p>Bleu Leather<p>

Chapter 8

_Bound at her legs, top and bottom. Bound at her wrists and arms. She couldn't speak, couldn't cry out for help. She only watched in horror as he tried to best Narcissa. But the problem was, Narcissa was…winning. _

_It was gruesome. That dirk that she had always had was trouble after all. That was still no surprise to Roxanne .Unlike Megamind had used to be, Narcissa was truly black-hearted and savage. This was no game to her as it used to be to him. This was a serious matter of disposing of her two biggest oppositions. _

_What about Megan? Where was she? And Annabelle? What about Eboni and Aidan? _

_Kaitoia. _

_Somehow, she knew these names. These children. These extraordinary children that had helped them so much. _

_But especially Megamind's sister. _

_She was wondering why they weren't here in Megamind's time of need. And her time of need. _

_No, she thought, as the vicious dagger was plunged into him again. _

_She ached to break free from her bounds. Help him. Protect him. Anything. _

_Narcissa spilled more of his blood. That was it. _

_As if by magic, the ropes bounding her fell away, and she could speak again. _

_Then she was at his side, consoling him. Blood had already soaked her clothes. It was dribbling out the corners of his mouth. _

_Despite everything, she gave him one last, longing kiss. And he kissed her back, wanting to have the strength to pull her closer. _

_Narcissa was yelling in fury behind her. _

_Then the dagger stabbed her in the back. _

"AUGH!" Roxanne woke up screaming. It was like a horror movie. A horror movie that her paranoid mind had conjured up.

But she hadn't even thunk about Narcissa today! Why was this woman so poignant? First Megamind had had a nightmare about her, and now it was her turn. Ugh, why had it been filled with so much of his blood? Roxanne was just a little squeamish about the sight of it.

After a few more deep breaths, she slid her head back on her pillow. It was no use convincing herself it was just a silly little dream. This was going to get out of hand. The recurring question bounced around her tortured head.

_Gosh, what the heck is going on? _

Roxanne turned her head to look at the digital clock on the bedside table. In glowing green numbers, it read 2:30 AM. The numbers were just standing there. Idle, just like any other digital clock.

Then Roxanne looked to her right. In the darkness, she saw Megamind sound asleep. He was silent, and the only movement was his smooth breathing. He had the covers drawn closely upon him, and he was facing Roxanne. She managed a smile. He just looked… so cute! Again with his occasional cuteness. She remembered hours before, when she had refused a kiss. She turned her lips into a cheerless frown. What had she been thinking? Why, at the last second, had she chickened out on the kiss she wanted so badly?

_That is just…so incredibly wimpy of me. _

Maybe it was the way his eyes both allured and intimidated her. Or…hmm. Something about Megamind just made him so irresistible. So tempting. He was very handsome, unique, funny, sinister and charming. Something about him just made Roxanne's heart leap whenever she saw him.

Of course, he was an alien. But despite everything, he was just so lovable to her. She even liked his blue skin and large head, because without that, he wouldn't be the Megamind she adored. And the slimness of his waist, that was okay too. Once again, unique.

Sheesh, as she thought about this, she felt compelled to seize Megamind in a vicious embrace, she loved him that much.

But what if he was a light sleeper?

Roxanne abandoned the idea and tried sleeping again. Then the images of Narcissa filled her mind once more.

And then she realized her dream was very similar to what Megamind described his to be on the plane. She kissed him in her dream. Narcissa was killing him, and then also killed Roxanne. This nightmare was like her side of Megamind's. That was very creepy, indeed.

Roxanne's pulse quickened when Megamind shifted in his sleep and then his arm was lying across her middle.

His arm was warm, as always. After a few more seconds, he let out an unconscious moan, and then mumbled.

" Rrroxxaa…" Roxanne realized he was saying her name. Or was he even asleep?

"Warrrmm…" He purred again. A slight smile creased his blue lips. It was barely noticeable in the semi-darkness. Roxanne laughed a little. It would be kind of mean to try to pry his arm away now. She had talked in her sleep before kind of like that when she dreamt. Should she say it to herself one more time? It was cute, too. The tiny smile stayed on his mouth.

Still in a deep sleep, and without knowing himself, Megamind tried pulling Roxanne closer. Roxanne went along with it and scooted towards him a few inches. He moaned in his sleep again.

Roxanne decided to let Narcissa go one more time. She soaked up the feeling of Megamind's arm around her torso, and then fell back asleep.

* * *

><p>The sunlight streaming through the windows shone through his eyelids, waking him up suddenly. Oh, yeah, it was morning.<p>

_But, I'm freezing!_

Megamind was curled up in a tight ball and shivering. Someone had stolen the blankets from him. The fleece pajamas with the embarrassing pattern on them were surprisingly useless.

Slowly rolling himself over, he saw Roxanne's sleep-mussed hair facing away from him. Most of the covers were enveloped around her greedily. Her breath whistled slightly as she inhaled and exhaled through her nose.

Megamind knew it was a bit risky, but he scooched over to Roxanne's side to take back the covers so he could sleep in a little longer. Along the way, he sort of pressed against her back and nuzzled her a little before quickly returning to his side.

"I think that counted as a pick-me-up."

Megamind jumped. Roxanne had felt him snuggle her.

She stretched her arms outward and grunted as they extended. Then she turned to face him with a bright smile. Megamind colored purple. Ah, his first blush of the day had happened just seconds after waking up. That was a new record.

Roxanne decided to tease him a bit, remembering how he had talked in his sleep the night before. _His reaction should be interesting to see_, she thought.

She stayed sitting upright in the bed while Megamind slipped out of it slowly and shivering slightly. He reluctantly slipped on his childish-looking bat slippers, since the tile floor was like standing on ice.

"Cold?" Roxanne asked imperturbably.

"Oh, but you wouldn't know, would you? Now, you were bundled up in all of the covers, including mine." Megamind's voice was staunch.

"Yeah, sorry 'bout that" Roxanne shrugged. "But you sure got your warmth elsewhere last night…"

"Say wha-?"

"I am referring to last night at two-thirty, when you were talking in your sleep", Roxanne started slowly.

Megamind's eyes flitted elsewhere. "So?" He tried to sound nonchalant, but it came out hesitantly.

"Then I wonder: how did that little arm of yours snuggle so close to me? And then you were all like, "Mmmm, warm!" I was like a teddy bear."

Megamind's mouth opened and closed a few times before his face grew terribly hot. He was at a loss for a witty comeback, which was highly unusual.

"How do I know you're not making that up?" Megamind finally choked out. He threw Roxanne a pouty scowl.

"Because I wouldn't want to embarrass you with something that's not true!" Roxanne cocked her head in jest.

Megamind dropped his mouth open and stiffened his arms at his sides. Then he looked away and straightened his mouth into a thin line.

"I'm going to go get dressed…" Megamind muttered. Roxanne laughed. Slowly, she slipped out of bed, and then recoiled when her bare feet touched the floor. Tile always absorbed temperature, and right now it was freezing. She was jealous of Megamind having slippers.

She forced her feet to deal with the cold, and got out of bed anyway. She looked around for her suitcase to put on her clothes. She spotted it beside the boudoir and bent down to carry it over to the bathroom where she could change.

As she Roxanne stood in front of the mirror, she couldn't help but keep wondering why she had suddenly refused Megamind's inviting kiss last night. They were in the perfect moment, and his blue lips were _right there._ Yet, as much as she wanted to capture those lips, she had hesitated and then snubbed it. And no matter how much she told herself that she wasn't entirely ready for making out yet, deep inside, she knew she was. She knew she wanted it.

Yes, she had just been kind of wimpy at the moment. Highly unusual.

Roxanne pulled her soft orange blouse over her head. Then she smoothed it down on the front.

_Ok, I really need to set things right._

Fixing up her hair ever so slightly, she stepped back out the bathroom door slowly. She saw Megamind sitting on the edge of the bed, pulling on his leather boots. He was actually wearing his normal costume, minus the cape. Roxanne supposed that was ok. After all, those spikes fit him quite well. They always had.

Roxanne strode over to place herself next to Megamind. After he slipped into his left boot, he looked over and smiled at her sweetly. "I hope you don't mind me wearing this. It's a regular thing", Megamind said, toying with his neck collar. He was rather nervous with Roxanne this close to him.

"It's fine. The whole world knows about you and what you wear. I like it", Roxanne said simply.

Megamind smiled softly again. The half-lidded look swept over his face, this time with more feeling in it. Those sparkling emerald eyes shone with devotion, a look Roxanne immediately adored.

"So you like spikes and leather, huh?" Megamind crooned, inching a tad closer to Roxanne.

"Only when it's on you. You're such a bad boy."

Megamind now placed a hand gingerly on Roxanne's waist. With his other hand, he was practically wringing out his flourishing neck collar, unsuccessful at hiding the fact that Roxanne was right up against him, and he was feeling like a lovestruck teenager.

"I know."

Megamind turned on the charm full blast, but he was still kind of nervous. He glanced away uncertainly, but not before Roxanne reached up to stroke the bottom of his chin, riveting his attention back to her. Those eyes like aquamarines bore into his, setting him into a trance.

Megamind thought his chest would burst with excitement when Roxanne slowly tilted her head up so it was level with his.

Just in case, he closed his hand tighter around her waist.

And then it finally happened. _Finally._

Roxanne brought her mouth to his. Megamind reacted immediately by placing his other hand on Roxanne's neck, gently pushing her head towards him so that she would kiss him more deeply.

Oh, the experience was exhilarating. Roxanne never knew his lips were so soft. So comforting and gentle. She adored the way he kissed her tenderly back, treating her as if she were the most delicate thing in the world. And Roxanne was, to Megamind.

Roxanne tried to lace her fingers around his neck, but his flourishing neck collar got in the way. She quickly unclasped it, and it fell to the floor with a loud _th-clap_ that resounded in the quiet hotel room. Her fingers gripped the back of his neck, and she liked the way his skin felt. It was almost as soft as his adoring lips.

Megamind wanted this moment to last forever. He had desperately wanted this kiss, and now he had it. It was better than in his fantasies. He prodded her lips with his delicately, caressing the side of her face with his leather-clad hands.

Wait, what if he wanted to hold Roxanne closer? The spikes would impale her. Still kissing her, he briefly let go and pulled his gloves off. He indifferently tossed them to the ground with a clinky sound of the metal spikes against the tile. He returned his hands to Roxanne's back and her left cheek. He was surprised at how much softer her skin felt on his bare hands. It made him feel compelled to tug her onto his lap. Roxanne gladly followed through.

They kept kissing. It was increasingly difficult to stop.

And then Roxanne tried something new. She pressed her lips deeper into his and gave his bottom lip a little nibble.

That did it for Megamind. With maximum passion, he pulled her closer than ever, until she was firmly against his chest. He couldn't tell the difference of whether it was Roxanne's or his heart that was pulsing at the speed of light.

Megamind coaxed her to lay down again on the bed, still kissing her passionately.

_Ohhhh… this is so good… _

His lips left hers and trailed down her neck. Roxanne moaned pleasingly at the feeling.

_Ahhh… _

Megamind wanted more. He nuzzled her neck a bit before returning to caress her lips with his. This time, he meekly ran his tongue over Roxanne's lip. She accepted it and then kissed him harder, if possible. They were already in an impressive lip-lock.

It was just overall bliss. Megamind was surprised that he hadn't passed out cold from the pressure and the joy of it yet.

He intertwined his leg with Roxanne's. He never wanted to let her go. They kissed so hard, they could feel each other's teeth grind against one another at times.

There was just one thing Megamind was forgetting. But how could he possibly forget that silky, luscious hair? His hands were bare. They were kissing. He could rake through her hair all he wanted.

But then Roxanne gently broke the kiss. The sound it made echoed across the hotel room. Even though Megamind was bursting with ecstasy, he almost cried out in desperation for her gorgeous head of brown locks.

_Sob! Give me that hair!_

Megamind felt about to pass out _now._ If only she weren't looking into his eyes with that dreamy, sultry look. But then he realized he wouldn't have that rush of adrenaline, and bursts of adoration. Those made him feel outstanding.

Roxanne made him feel more outstanding.

The two were speechless. This had been the first time they had kissed since Megamind had masqueraded as Bernard. But it was the first truly passionate one they had shared. Oh, it was just… indescribable. He loved her desperately, dearly, dreadfully to pieces.

Megamind hugged Roxanne tightly. Mmm… she was warm. Her hair smelled like cinnamon. She was hugging him tightly back, trailing her perfect hand down his slender back. It sent a tingle across his body.

"Roxy… you have no idea how long I've wanted to do that", Megamind whispered into her ear. He gave it a little nibble.

"Megamind", Roxanne whispered back. "You called me…Roxy."

"Mm hmm."

"I like how you say it _much_ better than how Metro Man used to say it", she purred. Rubbing her cheek affectionately on Megamind's shoulder, she couldn't imagine being happier in anyone else's arms. Gosh, she loved him so much.

"Mmm…" Megamind couldn't stop moaning pleasantly. Roxanne thought it was a lovely sound. "You are such a devious, sly, underhanded temptress, you know that?" Megamind crooned into Roxanne's ear. He kissed it.

"Mm, no I didn't."

"Well, you are."

"Then thank you." Megamind smiled at her. He rested his forehead against hers, intending to stay lying down on the bed until they absolutely needed breakfast.

Oh, Roxanne was stuck in his head forever.

* * *

><p>It took a little while for Annabelle's eyes to get uncrossed. She was lying on the floor, strewn across her blue carpet, which scratched the back of her neck. She sat up, prodded the floor beside her to look for her turquoise and gold helmet, and then placed it atop her white, fluffy hair. It was so annoying the way everything in her room was dipping and wavering before her eyes. Were they going to stay crossed forever? It sure seemed like it.<p>

After a few minutes, her eyes finally focused.

What she saw before her left her completely abashed.

Her room was in shambles. She rubbed her eyes to make sure she wasn't hallucinating, but it was real. All her sheet music was scattered across the floor, most of it ripped up and mutilated. Her loveseat lay on its side, stuffing pouring out a large tear in the arm. Instruments she had owned had protruding pieces of wood, broken strings, and busted parts all around. The mattress on her mediocre bed was awry, her belongings scattered randomly everywhere, clothes wrinkled and all places imaginable. Even the painful reminders that the hanging tapestries were, were hanging by one hook or crumpled on the ground in an enormous heap of intricately woven stitches and thread.

Annabelle stood up suddenly, but then fell back down agonizingly on her face. She was still horrifically dizzy. The last thing she remembered before she had blacked out before was a swift and excruciating blow to the back of her head that must've left her unconscious for hours. The hit to her skull had come without any warning, and out of the blue. At the time, she had been using her fortune telling power through song to figure out further the mysterious person entering her life. She had finally gotten a decent image of him in her head when all went black. The whack she had received stung like heck. There was still blood trickling from her nose where she had landed falling hard of the stool she had been sitting on. It was still sickening to look at, even if her blood was a bright purple, as intense as her eyes.

Sitting up, and wincing, she held her finger to her nose to catch the blood. She realized her whole body ached as well as her cranium from the awkward position she had been in.

But she had another matter to deal with.

_Who the devil did this? _

Once her composure was regained, Annabelle leapt to her feet and her brow furrowed in disbelief. She turned around in circles multiple times, refusing to accept that her room was chaotic.

Wait. Her guitar. Where was it?

Annabelle made a worse mess of her room madly searching for her beloved piece of art. The object she had since toddler years, the thing she treasured most to express herself musically.

She loved it.

Oh my gosh, where in the blazes was it?

Just as she was about to explode in hysterics, she whipped her head around, her hair flying over her face in a flurry. Even through all her locks, she could glimpse a protruding piece of familiar cherry wood with intricate filigree carved into the neck.

Annabelle breathed heavily in relief. She clambered clumsily toward the guitar as if it were an old friend. Her oversized boots made it difficult to run, and she tripped numerous times. She was just so discombobulated, she couldn't think straight.

"Ohh!" Annabelle couldn't believe the guitar was in one piece. She was half expecting it to be in splinters, and that would've crushed her. She even kissed the neck of the guitar a couple times. To console herself, she strummed the strings a little. It was slightly out of tune, but that could be fixed. The melody the strings made was, to her, the most relaxing sound in the world.

Then she stopped. Even with everything buzzing around in her brain, she couldn't stop thinking about the mysterious man her mind was conjuring up the image of. So far, what she had gathered of him was most definitely not human. Just… a pair of the most neon green eyes she'd seen in her life. And a smidgen of blue skin.

Agh, those eyes. It wasn't a romantic attraction, but… intrigue. It was a very bright shade of green, and they seemed to even glow in the dark. In her head they were just blinking. Blinking and looking straight forward.

Blinking indifferently. But as if to say, _Come on. Uncover the rest of who I am. I know you can. _

Oh, she didn't want to burden herself with it at the moment. She had to clean up her room. Her lip curled up in a grimace when she contemplated the toil that lay ahead of her.

With a heavy sigh, Annabelle carefully laid her guitar across the floor and decided to first start with tidying up the loft she had in a wall of her room. It was very high up ; at least thirty feet from the floor. And she had a small spiral staircase that circled up to that cozy spot. It had a bed that was smaller than her four-poster one on the ground, and a pretty railing on the edges that let her look down on her living quarters. That loft held some of her more delicate and expensive instruments, such as her harp which was encrusted with diamonds and plated with gold like her helmet, and her violins with platinum bridges and filigree almost as gorgeous as the carvings on her guitar. That loft was very private, and where she did her best thinking.

Annabelle made her way sluggishly up the staircase. Her sweaty hand was gripping the polished oak rail. Her limbs were starting to feel quite heavy, and she had a nauseated feeling in her stomach. She felt a desperate need for a shower, for some reason .

She let out an exasperated sigh when she saw that the small loft was just as messy as her room. Except that her harp was completely untouched, and all the other instruments were without a scratch.

It was her dusty metal coffer in the corner that had gotten ransacked.

Annabelle was petrified.

In a complete panic, she rushed over to the chest and rummaged through the stuff on the floor, and the stuff still inside to see if it was still there.

Where was it? Oh Lord, where was it?

Annabelle tossed the last thing in the box out on the floor, refusing to believe the chest was empty. She absently prodded the cold bottom of it, as if it would magically appear before her eyes, and everything would be alright.

But it didn't. Even in her world, things didn't work that way.

Crystal tears threatened to spill from her violet eyes. The lump in her throat was so big, it almost restricted her breathing. The world in front of her started to spin and blur through the tears collecting at her eyes.

And then she let out a cry of anguish. The tears flowed from her eyes rushing like waterfalls. Her cloudy hair, now a softer gray color, was making even more water soak her wood floor. Annabelle could care less about that at the moment. The thing that burdened her now was something that no one could ever forgive her for. She'd be despised for the rest of her life.

The diary. _Her_ diary was obsolete. And there was absolutely nothing she could do about it. Now Narcissa had the upper hand. The entire world was doomed all because of her. The information in that diary was crucial to Narcissa.

Narcissa, that evil fiend.

Even though Annabelle wanted to be angry, wanted to be furious at Narcissa, she just couldn't. She felt too guilty and two-faced for it right now. All the trouble, abuse and trauma she had been put through for the past couple years was pushing back up at her eyes harder. It was like trying to keep an inflated balloon underwater—deeply underwater—for such an extended period of time, that when it shoots back up to the surface, it hits you hard in the face.

Annabelle's throat was already sore from her weeping. Her screaming; it was as intense as a million foghorns fired at once. All those problems finally sunk in. She was a worthless, blithering idiot lying all her life. And even though she had intended, _really_ intended to change, she couldn't.

She just couldn't.

She wanted to curl up on the floor and die in the puddle of tears that had literally accumulated all around her. Hot tears that felt scalding, even.

The closest she could come to that was staying in the small bed, sulking for the rest of her life. Never moving, nor causing further harm to her already mutilated reputation.

She never wanted to exist again. She wanted to turn into mist and ebb across the wind until she diminished.

She just hated herself so much.

* * *

><p>AN Curse me! I forgot to mention that I'm focusing on that mysterious Annabelle an awful lot, too! Well, keep busying yourself with wondering how her diary has importance with the course of this whole story... would it be copying Harry Potter if I also had that diary be able to suck people in its pages and take them through vivid entries at a time? o_O You tell me.

Plus... THIS FANFICTION ZOMBIE GAL WANTS REVIEWSSSSS! XD NOT BRAINSSSSS!

Aren't I so weird? ;)


	9. Chapter 9

TWO WORDS: CHASE SCENE! :D tell me what u think.

Bleu Leather

Chapter 9

Roxanne was no longer afraid to hold Megamind closer than ever when she was riding with him on the Vespa. It felt so much better to know that they had kissed. Kissed willingly and tenderly; a sure sign that their relationship was to last. And Roxanne was greatly happy that Megamind was no more alien than his blue skin, large head, and anorexic-looking frame. Except for stronger bones that healed faster, and a slightly higher temperature than most people, Megamind was a normal man.

Oh, what consolation. That passion had just burst right out after kissing.

It was just… Roxanne found it kind of weird that he hadn't actually _told_ her that he loved her. And Megamind was mentally smacking himself for not just saying those three simple words.

That still didn't deter her feelings for him. They both benefitted from being so close to each other as they rode the Vespa downtown again. Just being with each other, looking at the sights in Paris was exhilarating. Still… ugh, why couldn't Megamind just come out and _say it?_

Oh well. At least she was keenly rubbing her hand up and down his chest, and her breath felt warm and tingly down his back. No matter how many times she touched him like that, it sent a rush of excitement all over Megamind's body.

What he didn't know was that Roxanne was still just a bit…scared. From the nightmare she had had last night. Her grip on Megamind was both out of love, and out of worry. Last night, she stopped worrying about Narcissa because Megamind had derailed her train of thought by unconsciously placing his arm across Roxanne's midsection. Wasn't his fault of course, but now the vexing thought had wormed its way back into her mind. She bit her lip in deliberation. Even if it sounded like nonsense, Roxanne was sure that the small chain of nightmares and episodes of the odd sensations that Narcissa gave off were not insignificant at all. There had to be a connection somewhere.

And then the last time they had ridden the Vespa together, it was the first time Narcissa had (technically) talked to her. And threatened her.

Ugh, her mind was being so tortured right now! One moment she wanted to ponder it, then another she had to force herself to forget about it because she shouldn't worry herself on vacation. Which one to choose? She had no idea.

Megamind, on the other hand, had forced himself to completely forget Narcissa unless it troubled him at the moment. It was a better choice of thinking.

Who would've guessed one creepy woman would intrude on their free time even before her master plan was unveiled?

Oh, well. Roxanne decided again to let go of it. She didn't know when it would come to worry her again, because it always came back around like a crazed boomerang. That was kind of annoying.

But still, she instead relaxed and indulged in the feeling of A light breeze ruffling her hair, and Megamind's back against her. How could she be vexed with Narcissa when everything was perfect? She could still feel a pleasant tingle on her cheek where Megamind had gently stroked it while they kissed.

Oh, that kiss… it was most likely the best thing that had ever happened to her. It felt so passionate, and soft, and ardently avid. It had just felt so good…

Yeah! There was more to Paris than… Narcissa.

As Roxanne continued with her arms wrapped around Megamind, she saw an untried street he was going into. It was quite pretty. There were vintage-looking houses with ivy encircling a lot of them. Wrought iron fences were with intricate swirly shapes, and fountains that spouted water in complicated patterns. This was nothing like the neighborhoods in Metro City.

Roxanne looked closer at all the old houses. Some of them looked old enough to be from colonial times, even. But definitely in top condition. In some windows there were lace curtains and filigreed frames. There were even windows that went from the ground up to the roof, showing spiral staircaes that spun around in tight spirals.

Roxanne wished she had something like this to look at in Metro City than apartments, and more apartments everywhere you turned.

That lovey feeling came back to nestle itself inside Roxanne's chest. The romantic feeling she had experienced when she set her mind to kissing Megamind. _This_ is what caused romantic feelings in Paris? The buildings and the scenery? That was pretty amazing.

There were no other people on the street Megamind was driving on. There were only little sparrows chirping in trees, and the occasional dove.

It made Roxanne hold Megamind tighter. She could hear him making a satisfied sound, and leaning his head briefly against her cheek, which was resting on his shoulder. That skin of his was so soft.

Oh, Roxanne loved Paris now.

But…wait, why was her neck tingling?

No. Not Narcissa. Not now! It couldn't be!

The tingling got stronger. So strong, it was actually kind of painful. Roxanne reached over to the back of her neck and massaged it, but the tingling only got even stronger.

"Megamind!" Roxanne suddenly shouted. The scooter they were riding wavered. Megamind was surprised at Roxanne's outburst, and it startled him so much that the Vespa stopped riding in a straight line and wobbled.

"Ah! Roxanne what is it?" Megamind asked when he regained his balance. His voice had a thin line of annoyance. The romantic moment had been crushed. Roxanne turned her neck to look behind her. They were no longer alone on the road. A small figure astride a red Vespa was growing larger in the distance. The person riding the scooter had a helmet on, but that didn't hide the wavy, curly honey-blonde hair whipping around in the breeze.

Oh no. She was back.

"Megamind, look behind you."

Megamind stopped the scooter abruptly and slowly stole a glance behind him.

He saw Narcissa. Terror glistened in his eyes. Even though Megamind wanted to move, to make a getaway, he couldn't.

Narcissa grew closer.

"Megamind! Move!" Roxanne jostled his arm.

"Nuhh…" Megamind muttered something unintelligible.

"MEGAMIND!" Roxanne yelled at him.

Then she had no choice but to slap him clear across the face.

Ok, that definitely worked. Megamind spluttered and shot Roxanne a scowl. Roxanne winced.

"I'm sorry! Just… GO!" Roxanne squeezed his shoulder in urgency.

Megamind gave the handlebar of the Vespa a violent twist, and it raced forward with a roar from the engine. In the rear view mirrors, he could see Narcissa gaining on them rapidly. Megamind was breaking the speed limit going as fast as he was.

Narcissa's speed increased even more. She was so close, Megamind saw in the mirror her bloodstained dirk around her less-than-normal sized waist. He briefly wondered how she could be skinnier than him.

Ok, now she was way too close.

"Roxanne, hold on for dear life."

Roxanne did as she was told. She was not going to let go of Megamind, ever.

Then she saw why she needed to grip onto him. Megamind was looking into a sharp turn that would knock her off the bike if her balance was lost.

She hoped she wasn't suffocating him when she compressed harder into his back, not accepting the fact that she might tumble to the ground and get run over.

"Well, I really have no other choice, now do I?"

Megamind concentrated on the turn. He bit his lip, also worrying about Roxanne, and if she might fall off.

He was not about to let that happen.

Bracing himself for the worst, Megamind speeded into the turn. The Vespa dipped low to the ground, and Roxanne whimpered a bit. The road almost grazed her arm.

Oh, it HURT! Megamind had a painful grimace on his face as he tried desperately to stand the Vespa up straight again, but for that his elbow had to scrape against the asphalt. It mutilated his leather gloves, and burned his spandex bodysuit.

With a great groan of agony, he finally pulled himself upright. Then he growled when he saw Narcissa following closely behind.

Megamind had to get Roxanne to safety.

"Roxanne! I'm going to let you off on the sidewalk somewhere, and then you get as far away from here as possible!" Megamind yelled over the noise of the roaring engine. Roxanne blinked.

"No Megamind!" She protested. "I'm not going to leave you now!" She placed a firm hand on his shoulder. Megamind shook his head softly.

"Roxanne, you need to be safe!" He insisted.

"I am staying right here!"

Megamind didn't want to be pushy. But he went as fast as the scooter would allow so he could elude Narcissa and have enough time to get Roxanne to safety.

Roxanne frowned a bit as Megamind pulled to a sudden stop on a curb. He stepped off of the bike and grabbed Roxanne by the shoulders. Firmly grasping her, he made her get off the scooter, even though she objected.

Megamind locked eyes with Roxanne seriously.

"Roxanne, stay right here unless she comes after you, too. If she does, then run. Run and scream as loud as you can. I don't want you hurt."

Roxanne found it hard to disagree with that voice, and those eyes. She merely nodded wordlessly, discerning nothing else to say. She was terrified.

Megamind quickly hopped back onto the scooter with a vexed look on his face. He gave Roxanne a sober look that said, please_ stay safe._ Then he sped off rapidly when he saw Narcissa at his heels. Roxanne could feel the warmth of the exhaust from the scooters as she craned her neck down the street to watch Megamind getting chased by Narcissa.

And then that was when she heard clunky footsteps behind her. Eyes wide with panic, she whipped around and saw a brunette woman sprinting towards her with an angry expression on her face. In her hand was a club with a crescent moon and stars embalzoned on was wielding it menacingly.

Roxanne's first instinct was to run for dear life. Oh, and scream.

She took off, dashing around the block so fast, she was out of breath in a few seconds. The woman gained on her, and Roxanne was still screaming.

Meanwhile, Megamind was still in the chase with Narcissa. He had had some very close calls with falling off of the Vespa when he steered too sharply. Unfortunately, he had strayed away from the vicinity of where Roxanne was screaming her head off. He was also too occupied with other little things, such as mini-missiles Narcissa had built in to the side of her scooter, and dead ends in the street.

_Missile! _

_Dead end! I have to cut across another yard again! _

_Crud, a missile! _

_There goes another freshly cut lawn, I home nobody lives there… _

_Missile! _

_Dead end!_

Narcissa fired another missile. It roared past Megamind's head, and then collided with a brick wall. It created a large explosion, sending pieces of concrete and mortar hurtling through the air. Megamind narrowly avoided the rubble, and burned his leather clothes again when he dipped dangerously low to the ground. He panicked when he almost crashed with Narcissa's bike while trying to turn around and escape her. But he snaked around the red scooter, creating sparks when the squeal of metal against metal sounded. It pierced Megamind's ears, making them ring painfully.

He evaded Narcissa, and she was delayed while she turned in a sharp circle to continue pursuing Megamind. He speeded down many blocks, and Narcissa was incessantly following him.

Then he heard Roxanne's screaming. Now he was truly terrified. The blood in his veins frosted over as his hands painfully squeezed the handlebars.

"ROXANNE!" Megamind hollered, and started to madly circle around the blocks in search of her. Was she hurt? What was wrong? Where was she? Horrible thoughts filled his head as he thought about the possibilities.

Then he saw her sprinting across the street, and another woman chasing her on foot.

"MEGAMIND!" Roxanne screeched for help. Her short hair was falling around her eyes, and it was ruffled from the breeze, sending it in all directions. The other brunette woman pursuing her still wielded the large club scarily.

Megamind was taken aback by this. He angrily revved up the Vespa some more, as if it didn't already have enough stress on it, and zoomed past the woman, grazing her. It sent her spinning wildly as Roxanne made her getaway, looking back to make sure Megamind was ok.

He had almost crashed his bike into a wrought iron fence surrounding a house that was overrun with willow trees. There were skid marks that spider webbed all over the street.

Megamind fumbled to regain control of the Vespa, and then raced down the other road. Narcissa snarled and went after him once again.

This road was bumpier. It was kind of hard to go fast without your jaw vibrating madly.

Oh no.

Narcissa was impossibly close to Megamind. In the rear view mirrors, Megamind could see the details of her (for once) simple purple leather jacket.

Hmm. One more strategy. It was risky, but how else could he lose her? He had to try.

Even though Megamind was going at fifty miles an hour, he almost broke his wrist putting on the brakes. It made a horrific screeching sound as it skidded loudly against the asphalt. It bounced up and down dangerously, and then tipped low to the ground, made sparks on the road, and made an even more terrific shriek.

And then it overturned. Megamind went flying, and then tumbled head over heels numerous times. He could feel his skin get a nasty road burn, and his head was pounding like a timpani drum. He screamed in agony.

Then he rolled to a stop in the middle of the street. He had received numerous concussions, and he was bleeding scarlet blood from the angry scrapes that marred his face. He was too weak to even let out another cry of pain. It was impossible to describe how much he hurt at the moment. And to think, it wasn't even close to the beating he had received from Titan. He ended up in the emergency room from that.

Meanwhile, Roxanne had lost the brunette woman that had been chasing her down. Now she was frantically searching for Megamind. Sprinting across the street in a frenzied mess. Earlier when she had tussled with the woman, her blouse had gotten ripped at the hem, and one strap was hanging loose from the stitches. She had a small laceration in her arm from where the club the woman had been brandishing the sharp edge of had cut her. Bruises were stinging at her legs and arms from the hits the woman had tried to take at her. But it was a pretty awesome move when Roxanne had grabbed onto a nearby lamppost, whipped around the side of it, and kicked the woman in the head, knocking her out cold.

And now she wanted nothing more than to know that Megamind was ok.

Finally, Roxanne came to the street where Megamind had headed down, and didn't come out from. Her heart seized to beat and dropped down into her hollow stomach when she saw Megamind sprawled out on the asphalt, a battered Vespa lying beside him.

_No. he can't be…dead. Can he? No! Please no!_

"Megamind! Megamind!" Roxanne called his name multiple times before she was at his side, panting heavily. She keeled over and touched her hand to the side of his face gingerly. His skin was still warm, and very much alive. Megamind's vibrant green eyes were squinted shut, and he was only half-awake. Galaxies of bruises and scrapes tarnished his otherwise smooth and silky skin the color of a robin's egg. He let out a pained moan and then looked at Roxanne. Her eyes were glistening.

"Megamind, are you ok?" Roxanne whispered. Her voice was thin.

He groaned again. His round eyes opened a little wider. "I hurt."

Roxanne laughed humorlessly. "Of all the things that could happen… I'm so glad you didn't…like, get killed or anything", Roxanne said.

Then Megamind sniveled a bit. He squeezed Roxanne hand, his clouded eyes wide with horror. "Roxanne… LOOK OUT! Behind you…" Megamind's voice wavered, and then went raspy. And his head dropped to the ground.

"W-what do you mean?" Roxanne stammered. She leapt to her feet and looked around frantically.

Then a pair of long, calloused hands seized her around the mouth and her waist tightly. She struggled, but it was no avail.

"Better think twice before ya smack me in the head, lil' durl…" A feminine voice with a southern accent drawled behind her. Roxanne realized in was the woman that had been wielding the club at her. She had to be Narcissa's accomplice.

"Mmmf!"

The last thing Roxanne remembered before she blacked out was a figure clad in a purple leather jacket and red helmet with honey-blonde hair protruding from it. Narcissa was standing over Megamind. She removed her helmet, revealing heavy blue eye shadow and magenta lipstick. Those plump pink lips were smiling a wretchedly evil smile, and then she heard her cackle deviously.

"Little Boy Blue is mine, at last."


	10. Chapter 10

Bleu Leather

A/N Narcissa and Megamind, face-to-face at last! Some blood in this chap, just a lil warning. Narcissa's unusual knife is going to give Megamind a scar that'll follow him thorugh the story longer than normal. AND WE GET TO THE FANTASY PART AT LAST! YAYZ! :D

Chapter 10

The first thing that hit Megamind when he woke up was that he was aching all over. Even though most of his minor injuries had healed hours ago most likely, his giant blue cranium still throbbed from the numerous times he had been thrown across the street from the Vespa like a Raggedy Andy doll. His wrists felt sprained from jerking those handlebars so frequently.

Woah. Something was weird. Once he stopped seeing blurry, he looked at his beaten hands and saw that there were white bandages wrapped around both his wrists. And that was also when he realized an ice pack was at the back of his neck, and then another very weird thing.

He wasn't even in a hospital. He was reclined on a red velvet loveseat in the middle of what seemed like a very lavish sitting room. It wasn't the hotel, though. If possible, it was fancier. That chandelier had to be made out of _diamonds_ to sparkle like that. And…that chunk of mosaic on the round ceiling could have qualified to be in the Renaissance times. The polished marble floor looked freshly buffed, so you could see swirls of ivory and onyx and alabaster blended in, harmonizing with each other perfectly.

Oh, but…wait… those swirls of different stone made a large shape of…_ something_ in the middle of the enormous room. Megamind's eyes were still a little foggy to make out what it was.

Then his vision went completely clear, and what he saw on that floor made him gasp in horror.

It was a twistedly warped sinister shape of a crescent moon. The same emblem on Narcissa's razor-sharp fingernails. EXACTLY the same!

Megamind panicked, even though it was painful to move. His lungs hurt, and his throat was sore from the chase he had had with Narcissa hours ago. Ow, how should he breathe if he was in so much agony?

Thoughts bounced around in his throbbing head. The first one was quite obvious.

Where was Roxanne?

Megamind hoped she wasn't hurt. Or worse yet…dead. Could she be in the building? The woman that had seized her previously seemed in league with Narcissa. Sheesh, where the heck was she? Just the knowledge of her welfare would be good enough for him to be satisfied.

Megamind wished he could stand up. Wished he could scour this complex he was in until he found her and captured her in a vicious embrace, determined to never let anything happen to her ever again. Oh, he could only wish.

_Hello, Johnny. _

AUGH! What was that? That spectral voice that came from nowhere resounded all around the room. And how did it know his name? Well, his maiden name, anyway.

_You have awakened. And you are in pain, I presume._

Megamind didn't know if this was some sick prank, or if it was real.

Well, it had to be real! A prank gone this far shouldn't be considered a prank, but a dirty trick. Besides, what prank involved road burn and whiplash that was purposely done?

Ah-ha!

Megamind had found a new villain. Let's see if she was any good at presentation and witty banter…

Megamind heard slow, heavy footsteps coming into the room, echoing with each pace. His attention riveted to a nearby doorway, where the person seemed to come from.

Then he saw a leather boot peek out from the darkness in the doorframe. Then another boot stepped out. It was followed by a sweeping floor- length hem of a dress trimmed with green satin that was surrounded by silky white fabric. Then he saw the green bosom of the dress.

And then Narcissa stepped out from the shadows with a twisted grin on her face. In her hands was a sleek, slender Siamese cat she was caressing with those creamlike hands tipped with sharp onyx black nails. The cat actually seemed to also stare at Megamind evilly with piercing aqua eyes and black slits for pupils. Its eggshell white tail hung down from Narcissa's arms and flicked leisurely back and forth with a looming air to it.

Narcissa slithered over closer to Megamind. He was biting his lip nervously, and his head started to swim. What was she going to do to him? Hurt him even more? He didn't know. He was only afraid because he was injured and couldn't jump up and defend himself. Otherwise, he would've unleashed all his power to defeat the villain. He lived up to his new title of a hero anywhere, even though it was still taking some getting used to.

Narcissa stopped moving when she reached the loveseat Megamind was reclined against. His luminescent green eyes were wide with fear. Narcissa seemed to benefit from it.

"Oh, I can sense your fear Little Johnny Blue."

Narcissa's voice was unlike any other. It was completely smooth and creamy and soft, but at the same time cold and menacing. It made Megamind shudder, and then remember the pain in his back.

"I have just two questions, Narcissa", Megamind snarled, trying to sound brave.

"Where is Roxanne? And what do you want from me that I possibly have for you?"

Narcissa gave him a smug look and held her chin high. "Miss Ritchi will be none of your concern at the moment, Blue Boy", Narcissa purred broodingly. She kept petting her Siamese. "And for your second question, I'm afraid, that is much too complicated for you to process, even with that large head of yours."

Megamind scowled.

The cat Narcissa was holding leapt down from her arms and landed gracefully on the floor. It curled its tail around itself and sat down. Then Narcissa moved in to Megamind to inspect him further.

Megamind scooted his head back in disgust.

"Johnny, oh my", Narcissa exclaimed softly as her onyx eyes locked with his. "You are one dynamic extraterrestrial being. Just look at those oval eyes you have. They contrast perfectly with your robin egg skin. They are incredibly lurid."

If Megamind didn't know any better, he'd think Narcissa could actually be _flirting_ with him.

Ew.

A broad smirk came across Megamind's blue lips. "And that's important to you because…?"

Narcissa narrowed her eyes. "For a boy with a head the size of yours, you don't process things as quickly as I had hoped." Narcissa slapped the side of his blue cranium softly. Her voice was thick with scorn.

"If you must know, I happen to be a wealthy trillioniare, my blue friend."

Megamind was honestly surprised. A bit of his strength came back and he pulled himself up to a sitting position on the red couch. The ice pack that had been at the back of his head dropped to the floor, provoking the Siamese feline who happened to be still sitting there. It batted the thing a few times before licking its paw.

"Trillionaire? Isn't that sort of impossible?"

"There are only five in the world."

"Interesting", Megamind drawled out slowly, briefly stroking his thin goatee.

"What do you use all that money for?"

"THAT'S CLASSIFIED, JOHNNY!" Narcissa suddenly bellowed. For the first time, she whipped out her sharp dirk from the holster and held it up to Megamind's throat threateningly. Megamind mentally smacked himself for letting out a girlish whimper at that. Narcissa gave a wicked smile.

"Oh yeah? You think that knife of yours is anything compared to my De-gun?" Megamind was confident again, and he reached his hand down to the leather holster on his slim waist.

But… his hand closed around nothing.

Fear tried to ebb its way back into Megamind, but he refused to let it overtake him. That gun, he always took with him wherever he went! He was almost nothing without it!

Narcissa noticed the disturbed look on his face, and she laughed evilly.

"I'm not stupid, Blue Boy. You'll never find that doohickey of yours", Narcissa quipped. The cocked her head to make a point.

Megamind tried to best her by looking around the room; in search of a clever place she could've hidden his gun. He was good at this sort of thing. Nothing hides from Megamind!

"Wanna bet? It's under a loose floor tile, forty-third one from the left side of this room, near that lame crescent moon emblem that's on the floor. You really couldn't do better that that?...Nar-sissy?"

Narcissa threw on her most frightening frown indicating that Megamind's wild guess had been right. And indicating that she despised her new nickname. Megamind rested his chin in his hand and laughed triumphantly. These little things really ticked villains off, because he learned from experience.

Narcissa lunged the dirk forward, and rested it under Megamind's chin again. He panicked less, but the sharp point still hurt.

Ohhh… now he knew how Roxanne felt all those years he had almost pointlessly kidnapped her time and time again. Back then, it was all just a game to him, but now…Narcissa meant business for sure. And Megamind had to be the hero.

This was his first real mission, actually! With a real supervillain! This always made him exited!

"No! It's not under there."

"Then why can't you look me straight on?"

Narcissa's eyes wavered.

"Liar!" Megamind sang.

Narcissa regained her composure. "You say that like it's a bad thing, Little Johnny Blue!" she rolled her eyes for effect.

"Stop calling me Johnny." Megamind really hated his other name.

"Johnny,

"Johnny,

"Johnny." Narcissa pronounced the name painfully slow. Some of her spittle landed on Megamind's forehead, making him grimace. And then his face fell. Her tone reminded him of how Roxanne had playfully taunted him like that when they were horsing around on the bed in the hotel.

Oh, Megamind hated this woman. He put on a scornful expression, and looked at Narcissa darkly.

"I am going to ask you again, Narcissa, and answer this right." Megamind spoke with a reasonable tone at first.

"Where. Is. Roxanne?" With both of those words, Megamind found the strength to stand up from the loveseat and pierce Narcissa's eyes with his shimmery emerald ones. He could be very intimidating whenever he wanted to, even if he was still a smidge shorter than Narcissa.

"I'm not telling you Johnny. We have more important matters to deal with."

"You still haven't revealed your master plan to me yet. You know there's a special routine for the hero-villain cons-piracy, right?" Megamind told her. He had his arms crossed smugly across his slim chest.

Narcissa rolled her eyes dramatically. "Little Boy Blue, there is no _conspiracy_ to what I live for", Narcissa said, correcting how Megamind had pronounced 'conspiracy'.

Megamind gave his classic laugh. The exaggerated on that lasted just a second too long.

"Oh, please, I should know. Before I became hero of Metrocity, I was a villain such as you, except I did not take it seriously at all. It was a game to me, and the previous hero I battled. And the bait for Metro Man was Roxanne Ritchi.

"Look at me now! Who knew that being the hero would get me the girl, and have a happier life! Consider that, Nar-sissy!" Megamind explained in a nutshell. Then he gave up his dramatic composure and stuck his tongue out at her, turning his body away.

"It's NARCISSA!" she screamed. Out of anger, she stomped her foot loudly on the ground like a toddler throwing a tantrum.

"Oh, forgive me. My mouth is cursed…" Megamind said, his voice thick with sarcasm.

"I can very well MAKE it cursed, Johnny!" Narcissa threatened. She whipped a hand up and then Megamind screamed. Narcissa had dug her thorny fingernails into his collarbone. Little beads of blood appeared when she yanked them out of his blue skin.

"Was that the curse?" Megamind asked, then immediately regretted it. Curse? Come on, really…

"Oh it was just because I was cranky. Come along unless you want me to break your wrists." Narcissa had a look in her eyes that told Megamind that she meant it. She roughly seized his hand and held on to it surprisingly tightly. Then she led him out of the room quickly, Megamind staggering behind.

Outside of the large room, there was an eerie looking corridor that branched out into more hallways. The lights in the halls were dim, and the furniture old-fashioned. In some rooms, Megamind caught sight of fountains about twenty feet tall, pianos everywhere, and dining tables that looked like they rightfully belonged in Buckingham Palace.

And then he felt a freezing rush of air go past his face. There was no air conditioner in sight.

The air swirled around him. It was very weird, the feeling of it. It felt like cold little snakes coiling around him all over.

Megamind was surprised when he breathed out. He could see his breath. Why was it this cold?

"Erm… do you feel, I don't know…COLD at all, Narcissa?" Megamind asked hesitantly. Narcissa sighed annoyedly. What? He only asked one little question.

The sigh was not at him.

"MINERVA!" Narcissa stomped the ground violently, looking down at it as she jumped. "I WILL THROW YOU INTO THE RING OF FIRE IF YOU DON'T STOP THIS INSTANT!" Narcissa screeched. She still held a death grip on Megamind's hand.

After Narcissa stopped screaming about…Minerva, she walked on as if nothing had happened.

"Who's Minerva?" Megamind asked simply.

"It doesn't concern you."

Megamind realized that it was no longer freezing cold in the room. That…was freaky, actually.

He kept walking anyway. After turning left, then right, then left and left, and right and left again, Narcissa stopped suddenly.

Megamind felt rather clumsy when he bumped into Narcissa, distracted by all the sights in her mansion. She felt cold and sickening; the complete opposite of Roxanne.

No! As much as he wanted to, he couldn't make his heart ache by thinking about her.

"Clumsy fool…" Narcissa muttered under her breath as she pushed open a door in front of her.

"Since I have no real reason to lock you up in prison, this is your room, Johnny", Narcissa said neglectfully. Megamind was braced for a dingy room with a cot in it, but what he saw surprised him.

This room was about three times the height of the hotel suite! The round room had a very large bed with a canopy, and a chandelier almost as grandiose as the one that had been in the room with the black crescent on the floor. On the walls were tapestries of…

Megamind's face fell. This room wasn't all good.

There were tapestries that depicted Megamind's people. One that looked like a profile of Roxanne. Another with Minion on it. Another with webs and webs of black widow spiders (literally).

Megamind saw what Narcissa was trying to do.

Before Megamind could turn around and give her a piece of his mind, what he saw left his mouth hanging open.

"Blue Boy, you are confined to this room until six 'o clock tonight. Then you're let out for supper, and then back in here. From then on, your routine will be the same, and I will finally conquer this planet!"

Narcissa said this in an overly dramatic voice and then she spun around in a flurry of black smoke before vanishing with a flash of purple light.

And she was gone.

Megamind stood there gaping for several seconds before trying to find a logical explanation.

But all that came to mind was, _Ok, she definitely has the presentation part down!_

There had to be some wires and spotlights or something. Maybe colored smoke machines? There there none in sight. Those were well-hidden special effects.

Little did he know, those were not _at all_ special effects.

But now he needed to sit down and think. How did he end up in this mess anyway? Freakishly skinny psycho woman with pointed ears, Roxanne getting snatched away from him, and that unusual experience with that icy cold air swirling all around him in the corridors.

Oh, Roxanne. Megamind was so worried about her. Ever since he had first had the tiniest crush on her, he would never let her get hurt in any of his evil plans. And if, for some reason, she was in danger, he would first freak out, go and save her, then make up excuses as to why he didn't just let her go to her doom. That was what a real villain did after all, right?

Megamind had never been a real villain, so the hero role had suited him well. And it got him Roxanne. When she and he first admitted that they had crushes on each other, they agreed to start dating. And Megamind practically had a spaz attack from the happiness. It was disastrous after he had just drunk a cup of coffee.

But he really did care about Roxanne. There was no other person like her. Megamind just… oh, he just _loved_ her so much. He'd be more than devastated if she was seriously injured.

Or worse. She could be dead.

Megamind did NOT want to think about that last bit. It made a funny feeling sting at the back of his eyes, threatening to push past his green orbs and trickle down his cheeks.

She couldn't be dead. He could feel it. She _had_ to be ok.

Megamind bit his lip. He pulled his right leg up to his chest insecurely and rested his chin on his knee. For all he knew, she could be fifty miles away, or in the room next to him.

This brought up another subject in his head. Why was he sitting in some trillioniare's… erm… palace, anyway? What had he done?

It had to be something to do with the fact that he was an alien. Even though Narcissa had all the money in the world practically, she wanted more. People always wanted more. It gave them an air of power, and control. This was all any greedy person wanted. Just power to rule over land, or the whole Earth. She was probably going to use him in some odd way to get money, even though it was very illegal. Megamind was a registered citizen of Metro City, and that designated him with equal rights, and such. No one could touch him.

Yeah, but Narcissa just had. Hmph.

Then Megamind remembered what she had said just before she had vanished into that black cloud of smoke. Something about the world "finally being hers." Megamind knew it couldn't be a really sick joke. She had to mean it. There were _supervillains_ in this world.

Well, at least she was a decent supervillain. Megamind had recently discovered that villains he battled had to have certain traits for them to qualify to be a good adversary for him. It was actually kind of funny to be picky with villains. That was just how Megamind operated, he guessed.

Narcissa had the whole bit. Good at banter, threatening composure, her presentation seemed to be pretty good, and she was smart. Any villains that were terrible at banter, had a wimpy composure, weak presentation, and were dimwitted deemed to be very minor threats to Megamind. As he had mentioned to himself before, he was choosy for that kind of thing.

Then Megamind laughed at himself. What was he thinking? No, He couldn't actually negotiate with Narcissa and agree to become archenemies through reaching deals. That would require contracts, and stuff like that. Megamind had never done that with Metro Man, it just automatically happened. Almost since birth.

Although, Narcissa more than certified to be Megamind's adversary. It would actually make him very satisfied. He needed a real, constant villain to battle. That was the fun in it.

Yes, it was fun to save people. It was fun to be chased like in the movies. It was fun to be a hero.

Just not fun where Roxanne was involved in danger. He did have to have certain safety boundaries. Megamind could be a bit foolhardy at times, and that was what could blind him. He was just a stone cold sucker for adventure and victory.

But where Roxanne came in, he was very protective of her. She meant the world to him.

So he somehow needed to sneak out of this room Narcissa had placed him in. If he had to, he would fight with every ounce of himself and scour Narcissa's mansion until Roxanne was safely in his arms. He fantasized about it for a moment before he took in his surroundings in the room.

He still couldn't believe Narcissa had the nerve to hang up these tapestries. What was she trying to do? Obviously trying to make him hurt more. The tapestry of Megamind's own species made him miss his home. He remembered being in that pod with Minion, getting knocked off course for the Scott mansion, and landing in that prison. His earliest memories were of that day. He had a lot of memories in his abnormally large head.

Ugh. Narcissa put up the tapestries of Roxanne and Minion to make him miss them. Minion was his best friend, and Roxanne was his other half. The only two people he was very close with.

And if Narcissa was planning to keep him forever, well… he would never see either of them ever again. It made him cringe. That stinging feeling pushed at the back of his eyes again.

He squeezed them shut, refusing to let the feeling escape and fall to the carpet in droplets of salty water.

And then the tapestries with the spiders on them… yeesh! Megamind backed away a few steps from it. Spiders were a little bit of a phobia for him. Ever since he was about nine years old, the first black widow spider that had bitten him on the hand was scarring. The memory was etched in his mind. The pain, the look of the monstrous arachnid, that red hourglass on its abdomen creeped him out. From that moment on, he freaked out at the sight of spiders, and the _arachnus deathacus _incident that had happened on the day Metro Man had resigned as a hero didn't help his phobia much. The little thing that was dangling from its web, Roxanne had simply blown on it, and it bit his eye.

It _hurt._

The worst thing was, Narcissa had thrown in a few REAL black widow spiders with spider webs woven across the wall. Megamind could see the eight-legged creatures slowly creep their ways all over. If Megamind was going to sleep here, he'd have to either work up the courage to kill all the spiders, or reinforce himself with a pool of bug spray all around the bed.

The bug spray option was better. Megamind shook his head, thinking about how he was acting so much like Ron Weasly in the second Harry Potter book. When he was about eleven, he had read the whole saga in about a month. He found it quite exciting. J.K. Rowling was good at creating art with words.

And he compared himself to Ron when he had gotten to the second book. Ron was simply terrified of that giant spider, Aragog. Despite Megamind's problems he was supposed to be pondering, he laughed as he remembered a line from the book.

_Follow the spiders! If Hagrid ever gets back from Azkaban, I'll kill him!_

Then Megamind snapped back to reality. He really needed to rescue Roxanne, and find out Narcissa's plan so he could stop her. It would be fun!

The fun started as soon as he could stop worrying about Roxanne. He hoped she was alright, he hoped for the millionth time, but Megamind was just so upset.

_Please, please, please don't be dead, Roxanne._

* * *

><p>Megamind looked over at the clock. How long had he been lying on the bed, thinking and getting paranoid about the black widows? It seemed like hours.<p>

The grandfather clock read 5:58 pm.

Megamind moaned. He didn't want dinner. He was too depressed to eat.

And he just didn't want to look at Narcissa's evil face. It was beautiful outside, but hideous on the inside.

Megamind always saw the ugly part.

And then he wondered what the food would be like. Probably cold, tasteless, watery oatmeal. Even if he wasn't hungry, he would totally give for a decent plate of mashed potatoes and chicken or something delicious. As delicious as the things Minion always made.

Oh, Minion. That brought more pain to Megamind. And he remembered that he had never really thanked Minion for doing anything for him. Yet Minion still let it go.

But he did have boundaries. Megamind remembered the night when Minion had stormed out of the Lair in a huff right when Megamind had blurted five simple words:

"Code: I Don't Need You!"

And that must've done it for Minion. After all these years of looking after Megamind, serving him being his friend, and the thanks he got was _nothing?_ Well, nothing much. Now Megamind understood him. And now he felt guilty.

And guilt that builds up over years can hurt. Megamind made a mental note to say something of gratitude to the fish if he ever got out of this mess.

One more minute until six o' clock. Megamind snatched a pillow from the bed and buried his face in it. What was he going to do about this whole thing? And what was he going to do when Narcissa got here? He was usually good at planning retaliations. He had defeated Titan pretty well. And he had come up with a solution on the fly when he had been falling almost to his death.

Only how should he come up with an idea out of the blue in thirty seconds?

Thirty… twenty-nine…twenty-eight…

Oh, he really didn't want his train of thought to be derailed.

Twenty-seven…twenty-six…twenty-five…

Megamind wondered if Narcissa would appear in a burst of light, or a burst of glittery smoke.

Twenty-four…twenty-three…twenty-two…

How does a spider do that?

Twenty-one…twenty…nineteen…

Megamind observed the pattern on the canopy of his bed.

Eighteen…seventeen…sixteen…

AUGH! There was a black widow on his arm! He swatted it.

Fifteen…fourteen…thirteen…

Megamind banged his knee on the foot of the bed when he fell off of it, slapping his arm wildly.

Twelve…eleven…ten…

Hmm. It's weird that the kneecap isn't connected to any other bone.

Nine…eight…seven…

Ew… spider guts…

six…five…four…

Narcissa was almost here. Megamind stood up and tried to wipe the spider remnants on the bed sheets. Three…two…one.

Megamind heard a loud pop. It was followed by a shower of green sparks. Then another pop, and then another.

In a flurry of what looked like fireworks, Narcissa appeared amidst the sparkles. She had an indifferent look on her face, and in her arms was her spotlessly white tipped with brown Siamese. There was a blue satin bow tied around its neck, and its eyes were two blue slits, never seizing to ogle at Megamind.

Narcissa had another eccentric dress on. It was orange, and strapless, but there was a tall, skinny neck collar on the back that swooped up higher than her head. The puffy sleeves were see-through, and the cuffs were ruffled and studded with sapphires. The skirt spilled onto the floor, cascading in perfect folds of shiny fabric.

Around her toothpick-y waist was a new holster for her dagger. It was made of solid gold and sharply cut rubies around intricate filigree.

The dirk was still bloodstained on the mahogany handle. And for the first time, Megamind noticed that on the tip of it, there was an intricately carved skull with the eye sockets gaping open darkly.

"Hello, Johnny."

"I'm not hungry", was Megamind's immediate reply. He turned his chin up in refusal.

Narcissa scowled at him. And freakishly enough, her cat seemed to as well.

It even hissed at him.

Megamind raised a thin eyebrow. "What's with your cat?" he asked kind of nervously.

Narcissa rolled her onyx black eyes. "Her name is Petals, as a matter of fact. And she is not supposed to like my prisoners."

Megamind snorted. "Petals? A domestic housecat can like whoever it wants to. If I were Petals, I would hate you. Oh wait, I already hate you, Nar-sissy."

Narcissa whipped out her dagger and thrust it under Megamind's chin. Megamind flinched, even though he didn't want to. Man, she drew that dirk out quickly!

Megamind felt a trail of blood trickle down his neck this time as Narcissa pressed the knife a little ways into his blue skin.

"Boy Blue, continue with that smart mouth of yours, and I'll reconsider freshening you up for dinner. You'll get locked in a dingy cell instead!" Narcissa threatened. Her voice was dark and evil, yet smooth and sultry at the same time, as usual. Megamind was wincing.

"AUGH! Ok, just stop stabbing into my neck!" Megamind yelled. Narcissa calmly withdrew the dagger from his flesh. Megamind keeled over to the ground, clutching the tiny spot where Narcissa broke the skin. The scarlet blood shone on Megamind's still battered leather gloves when he put them in front of the light. It made him cringe.

Narcissa was looming over Megamind with a twisted smile plastered on her lips, slathered with navy blue lipstick that clashed horribly with her tacky dress. Megamind felt like a helpless child when she stepped forth and crushed his hand with her foot.

"I love toying with your emotions, Johnny. It makes me feel so refreshed", Narcissa sneered. Megamind's shining green eyes were wide. Even though he was usually incredibly brave in the face of evil, Narcissa actually…

Intimidated him.

"What do you mean, you wretched scoundrel?" Megamind sniped back. He wrenched his hand free of Narcissa's orange stiletto and stood back up. Blood still trickled down from the puncture in his neck. His brows were pressed down in a menacing glare. Megamind felt like knifes were shooting out of his eyes. He was so incredibly angry at Narcissa for ruining him. For snatching Roxanne away from him, and leaving him with a muddle of problems to flood his head. He missed her so much.

Narcissa glowered at Megamind, shooting knifes through her eyes back at him in retaliation. "I mean, your fear, your negative energy, I benefit from greatly. Seeing you suffer fuels me. Seeing you weak makes me powerful. That fear is absolutely delicious." Narcissa twirled a lock of blonde hair around her finger as she explained. With every word she said, she took slow, menacing steps towards the blue alien, trying to get fresh fear out of him.

Megamind resisted.

"Speaking of delicious, is that what my dinner's going to be?" Megamind asked smugly. He saw Narcissa's face hardened in annoyance. "Of course, you fool. You still haven't done anything wrong that's worthy of second-rate gruel. Otherwise you would've been in a torture chamber by now!" Narcissa explained to him obviously.

Megamind laughed. This reminded him of the Frequent Kidnapping Card. He had gotten the idea from a frozen yogurt store. His version of that deal was that if Roxanne got kidnapped ten times, she would get one Deluxe Kidnapping. Megamind had just given it to her casually, hoping she would overlook the filigree he had delicately woven into her name on the back of her card.

But she didn't.

It had been a close call when Megamind had blurted out five simple words during the kidnapping.

"Admit you're attracted to me!" He had yelled suddenly. Megamind forgot how he had come to say that during that kidnapping, but he had wanted to grab those words out of the air and shove them back into his mouth. It was a really awkward moment, but Roxanne shrugged it off after about a month. The real reason back then for the Card was sort of like a date in disguise. As previously mentioned, he had always had a huge crush on Roxanne.

And Narcissa, at that moment, was saying she was going to serve him "delicious" food. Ick, did she have a crush on him?

She didn't, but that was still unknown to Megamind.

"Come Johnny, we can't have you in these tattered clothes for dinner. You took a nasty beating on your scooter today", Narcissa crooned, reaching for Megamind's leather glove and picked at a stray piece of the material.

"Yeah… but what exactly do I change into?" Megamind asked, turning his arm away from Narcissa's sharp black nails.

Megamind was answered by another roll of Narcissa's eyes. Then out of nowhere it seemed, she magically had an armful of black spandex, leather and spikes. In her other hand she still cradled Petals.

Megamind was a little creeped out now. Only Minion knew how to design and make Megamind's clothes like that! And these were exact duplicates!

"Where'd you get that?" Megamind pointed to his new clothes with his eyes wide.

Narcissa smirked softly. "I have my ways", she simply said. "Put them on."

The bony woman thrust the black leather at Megamind. He took a few slow steps backward and then turned around to carry the clothes into the small closet in the room.

When Megamind took a closer look at what Narcissa had given him, he noticed that it was a bit different than exactly what his regular costume was. For one, the neck collar didn't curve up and outward in a swoop. It came straight up, and then curled ever so slightly around his blue head. It kind of looked like it would make his neck stiff, but that was ok.

Then he took a look at his boots and gloves. His boots had spikes on them this time, and they didn't have little cuffs around the rims. They looked like a simpler version of the ones he'd worn with the Black Mamba.

His gloves were a little more streamlined and sleek than his usual ones. They had more spikes, and the spikes were small and short.

After Megamind had observed a few other minor differences in this suit, he pulled the whole outfit together and gazed at himself in the mirror. He did look rather dapper; if he did say so himself. Yes, he could be a bit of a narcissist at times, but not constantly pompous. He rather liked the large, sparkly emerald button that clasped his neck collar together. It matched his eyes precisely. Roxanne would flip for him in this.

Agh! No, it was too painful to think of her!

After complimenting himself a few times while twirling in front of the mirror, he finally decided to come out of the closet and face Narcissa again. Why was she dressing him so fancily for dinner?

This was just so ironic. More flashbacks of the Frequent Kidnapping Card came back into Megamind's memory.

When Narcissa caught sight of Megamind's costume, she nearly gasped in adoration. She restrained herself, though, and instead went over to him and fixed the collar a bit.

Megamind was disgusted by how close she was to him.

"Why am I wearing this?" Megamind finally asked. To make a point, he gestured up and down his body. Narcissa instantly drew back and then put her dull, grumpy face back on as if nothing had happened.

"Keep in mind that you're still my prisoner. I'm just not your average kidnapper", she drawled seductively, and then flipped her hair a little. Megamind almost grimaced. She was flirting again.

"And anyway, you couldn't possibly wear those tattered, road burned clothes ANY time. Be glad you're dressed up."

Megamind almost rolled his eyes.

"And also, who would wear THAT to dinner? This looks much better, don't you think?" Narcissa said, and she tried to reach forth and adjust Megamind's neck collar a little more. Before she could touch him, Megamind recoiled a bit.

"Fine. I won't touch you, Johnny. But I'll need to have your hand so you don't get up to any funny business while I get you to dinner."

Megamind, for a moment, thought she meant it literally before she carelessly seized his hand in a bone-cracking grasp as she had done before, and led him out the door.

Megamind went through many corridors again before Narcissa stopped in front of a tall oak door. It was much taller than a normal door, and the dark sheen it had gave it a bit of an ominous look.

With a stride forward, Narcissa opened the door in a flourish. Megamind looked at the dining room with nearly ruptured eyes.

It was fancier than a ballroom! It was fancier than a medieval ballroom! It was fancier than any room he 'd ever seen! Indescribable!

The only parts he could put into words was the piano. That piano was so clean, it was scary. A curly, sparkly platinum candelabrum that was lit up on top of it, the fire dancing around lazily. And the whole entire ceiling was covered with a shimmery, sharp, luminous cluster of sapphires. They _looked_ like sapphires, at least. But they all hung from every inch of the ceiling and spiraled around until they reached the center, were the largest, spikiest gem dangled by a wire. For some reason Megamind could not place, he constantly pictured the sapphire's wire suddenly snapping and falling rapidly down to shatter in a million shards on the marble floor. While he stood under it. He tried to shake the image from his mind, even when the jewels wavered slightly and made a tinny tinkling sound that echoed in the silent, ovular room.

Narcissa still had a death grip on Megamind's hand until she lead him to his seat at an impossibly long dining table. The back of the chair was pretty long as well. It came so close to grazing the cerulean blue sapphires on the ceiling. They pointed down as sharp as the dirk on her miniscule waist.

Narcissa went to the other side of the table and sat down as well.

There was a painful silence for the next few minutes. The kind of silence that jabs at your stomach and makes your ears ring forcefully. The kind of silence that isn't really silence because of that.

Only the sapphires had something to say. _Tinkle,tinkle,tinkle. _

After a few long seconds, Megamind finally said something.

"So… are we just going to sit here? Is that what dinner is to you?" He asked, confused as to why they were sitting in silence. Narcissa squished her cheek in her hand in annoyance.

"Should be here any minute now…!" Narcissa whined, her voice gradually getting louder. She let go of Petals, whom she had been holding this whole time, and the streamlined cat leapt out of her arms and trotted over near the piano only to scratch madly at her neck, trying to get the ribbon off.

Narcissa tapped her sharp black nails on the wooden table, and they made a small clicking sound, which was magnified by the size of the room. She was exaggerating far too much on her impatience.

And then the food came.

Megamind's eyes almost ruptured again.

Not because of the kind of food there was, because it looked very high quality, but it was the way the food was coming.

The food was coming… _by itself._ Gliding through the air. Flying.

Megamind's arms were stock still to his sides.

_Special effects, special effects, special effects, _he chanted over and over in his head. Megamind was not one to really believe in anything spectral or magical. It was just… not logical.

How were the plates doing that, then?

Megamind squeezed his eyes shut tightly. He did not want to believe his eyes for anything.

He heard a few thumps on the table in front of him, and Narcissa sighed heavily.

"Open your eyes Johnny. Here's the food", she said boredly.

Megamind opened one of his eyes slowly. He tried to peer down at the table, and what he saw tempted him.

Food. A whole plate of it, plus some wine in a glass. Even when Megamind told himself a hundred times that he was not hungry in the slightest, he couldn't lie so much to himself. If he didn't eat right now, he would get even skinnier than a twig. And he already looked severely anorexic, which he was not, by the way. Just how his body looked. Skinnier than a rail, and no amount of food would make him more than that. So to keep himself from shrinking, he just ate like a normal person.

But what if the food only _looked_ good? What if Narcissa had poisoned it?

Grr… he was just so hungry, he had to admit to himself.

What the heck.

Megamind took hold of an impossibly shiny fork, and stabbed into some steak with it.

Food never tasted so good! It was seasoned to perfection, and was not too tender or too well done. Perfect.

Narcissa then talked a little more.

"So Johnny…" she started, "how do you think this food got here like that?" Narcissa's tone was weirdly rhetorical.

Megamind played along. "I don't' know…air currents?" he shrugged, because he knew that that answer was impossible. Narcissa shook her head, as if to say, _shame, shame._

"You have no idea what's going on?" she started in a menacingly low voice.

"…Do you?"

Narcissa was getting a little scary now.

"You, my friend, are in the midst of one of the best-kept secrets in the world."

Megamind didn't know if he should believe her. He took a sip of wine slowly.

Narcissa narrowed her eyes seriously. She licked her dark blue lips quickly.

"You best be ready for this, Johnny Boy."

Megamind rolled his eyes slightly. How bad could it be? He was already in a mess.

"Shoot." Megamind's tone was overconfident.

The blonde woman's lips curved into an impish grin.

"You… are amongst the mythical beings. The magical and supernatural. Whatever you call it."

Megamind couldn't help it. He seriously couldn't help it. He burst out in hysterics.

"Really Nar? Really? Nothing is more lame a reason that that! What is up with you? Has your brain fried a little?" Megamind jeered. He laughed harder than ever.

Narcissa twisted her face up in a venomous scowl. "Well it's true!" she yelled from her diaphragm so loudly, that Megamind abruptly stopped laughing. His eyes widened. Could it be?

No! It couldn't! Magic didn't exist!

"It's the reason why you're kidnapped. You are my prisoner Johnny."

"I kinda already picked up on that, Narcissa", Megamind spun his hand around in a gesture for her to continue on.

"And the twisted plan I have is to capture all unusual creatures in the magical and other dimensional realms, enslave their stupid little minds, and lo and behold, the world is mine."

Megamind had to believe it, but his mind kept trying to shun it out. It just wasn't logical.

"In case you haven't noticed yet Narcissa, I am FAR from stupid" Megamind muttered dangerously. His eyes shot daggers at the austere woman. "Just take a look up here. What do you see? Or are you blind?" Megamind growled, signaling up to his enormous blue head.

Narcissa's comeback was severely harsh.

"You're definitely dumb enough to not know what the devil is going on", she spat. "And let me add to my point.

"The little doll, Roxanne Ritchi is my captive too. But since she is quite unimportant, I'll have to decree…

"You'll never see that ragamuffin again. She will be disposed of. No more tragic than swatting a fly. Lives are petty to me, if it does not jeopardize my own. I kill if I have to, and nothing ever gets in my way.

"And then I'll feed off of your grief from the little reporter's demise. It will be delicious. Face it Johnny: your life is messed _up._ Without Roxie, you're nothing. Without the piranha you're nothing.

"And eventually, if I get a lucky break…

"You will kill yourself out of depression.

"Roxanne is hopeless. She'll never live if I have intentions of murder.

"She is going to _die._"

After Megamind heard this, he was speechless for a moment.

And then the full force of the monologue hit him hard in the stomach. Roxanne was going to die. He was going to die. And he would let everyone in Metro City down, because he did nothing about it. There was nothing he _could_ do.

Instead of grief washing over him like a tsunami, rage filled every nook and cranny of himself.

Narcissa was a monster. A beast. Bloodthirsty, blackhearted _EVIL fiend._

And then angry, ravenous tears were spilt from Megamind's lurid green eyes. No. This couldn't be happening. Impossible.

Megamind stood up stiffly, grasped a hold of his plate and wine glass, and then, as hard as he could, hurled them at Narcissa from all the way across the long table.

Megamind had a pretty strong arm, and the two things hit her in the face.

There was a scream. The shatter of crystal and china.

And a beastly, monstrous, hideous glare pierced Megamind straight on.

"I'm afraid you've gone outside the boundaries of which my patience is tolerable, Little Johnny Boy", Narcissa said with a wild look in her eyes. She was walking menacingly closer to Megamind, whose face was contorted in an enraged glower.

"You will not lay one of your hideous fingers on my Roxanne, you MONSTER!" Megamind bellowed. He sprinted towards her. He wanted to hurt her. Who says he can't hit a woman?

Narcissa stepped nimbly out of the way, and then caught Megamind by the neck. She held onto him tightly, almost choking him.

Megamind uttered a few pained sounds from his constricted throat. He started to get purple in the face.

Narcissa slowly unsheathed her dirk, and it glimmered with blood in the dim light. She placed it on Megamind's right breast, and it cut through the spandex in his clothing. It cut through his skin.

With a fiendish grin on her lips, she sluggishly made a long, shallow cut all along the right side of his chest. Megamind tried to scream from the agony, but all that came out was a raspy wheeze. Blood oozed out of the incision, dribbling onto the marble floor. It made a sickening sound at it pattered on the stone in scarlet droplets.

Then Narcissa lifted the murderous dagger away from his chest, and admired her work before scornfully letting go of the blue aliens' neck. Megamind crumpled to the ground in a heap, coughing and gasping for air. He clutched at his wound, which was absolutely excruciating. He was lying in a small puddle of his own blood, and it revolted him. The blood was very hot, as hot as the rage Megamind still had inside him.

Megamind turned over on his back, still cradling the wound. His blood soaked through the back of his cape, and onto his clothing. He breathed heavily.

Narcissa loomed over him, and then kneeled down to his face.

"Man…up."

The words were cold and tipped with icicles as sharp as the dirk that had pierced his skin.

"Stand up, you wuss. Now you're worthy of second class. I don't care which dungeon I put you in, as long as you're out of my way", Narcissa snarled.

"I'm never out of any villain's way", Megamind sniped back viciously.

"TELL ME WHERE ROXANNE IS!"

"NEVER!" Narcissa yelled louder. "STAND UP!"

Narcissa yanked Megamind off the ground by his right arm, causing the slash in his chest to shoot pain through his midsection. She drew the dagger back out and held it to Megamind's bloodstained back, threatening to plunge it in if he didn't obey.

"Walk. If you struggle, say goodbye to your precious little life, Johnny Boy", Narcissa spat angrily. Megamind furiously bit his lip, almost busting it. With every step he took underneath Narcissa's power, he felt like a helpless child, unable to do anything. He was being a worthless hero.

But he still didn't want the hideous dirk to take away his life, simple as that. He needed to come up with a good plan.

Gosh, Narcissa was one of the cleverest villains Megamind had ever come up against. He couldn't think with Roxanne, and all his problems whizzing around his head.

Then Narcissa stopped walking. The tip of the sharp weapon she still had in hand was still upon Megamind's back.

Megamind was confused. She had led him to face… a wall. Was this like corner time or something? Lame. That was for kindergarteners.

Then Narcissa removed the dagger from touching Megamind's back. She gripped his shoulders tightly, and then shoved him into the wall in one swift movement.

Megamind was braced for impact. But the strange thing was…

He simply fell. He fell a good several feet down. Everything went by so fast; he couldn't even absorb the dark background he was in.

He screamed.

And then he finally impacted with the ground, and everything went black.


	11. Chapter 11

Bleu Leather

Chapter 11

Megamind had been knocked out like a light when he hit the ground. When he woke up, it was nothing but pain. Mostly at the back of his blue cranium.

He was lying on his back, his eyes a bit crossed. He was positive he had bruises everywhere. But they usually healed pretty quickly; in a matter of hours, even.

His bosom still hurt from the slash Narcissa had made on his baby blue skin. There was a scab forming, but it still felt like a fresh wound. There were also a few scrapes on his head from the fall he had taken.

Then he realized that he was still dressed up, but that most of the clothes were as tattered as they had been when he got knocked off of the scooter. He unclasped the neck collar Narcissa had given him, and it fell to the ground.

The ground… in felt like… stone. Jagged stone.

For the first time, Megamind took in his surroundings. He rubbed his vibrant green eyes, and blinked a few times before gasping in awe.

He was in some sort of cave! How did he get in here? He was in Narcissa's mansion before this.

Well, there were stalactites and stalagmites everywhere. They dripped water into little puddles and pools, every drip echoing in the cavern. Megamind didn't know if there were bats, or cockroaches, or any other creatures in here, but he couldn't be too careful.

He pulled himself up to a standing position. It was kind of cold in the cave. There were ominous sounds coming from numerous places that sounded metallic and tinny. With every tiny step he took, his footsteps echoed loudly.

Megamind needed to try to find a way out of here. He kept walking, going around stalagmites and puddles.

Thoughts bumbled around in his head. How did Narcissa get him here? Or did someone else kidnap him? Whatever had happened, he was still determined to stop whoever was doing this. And he would most definitely never stop to track down his beloved Roxanne. He would go to all ends of the Earth if he had to.

And when he found her, he would kiss her. He would kiss her as long as he could, and this time he would rake through her glorious mop of chocolate hair.

He was just plain lovesick. He loved her so much, and he honestly would be likely to kill himself if she was dead.

The thought made him shudder. He also shuddered from the cold that had intensified in the cave. He suddenly longed for his cape he had abandoned, even if it was bloody and tattered.

Megamind came to a fork in the path. Hm. Which way to go?

He went with the left tunnel.

He wondered whether there was any danger of hurting himself by falling or tripping again. It was getting dimmer and dimmer in the tunnel, although he had no idea what was casting the little light.

Megamind looked up. The ceiling was dotted with hundreds of glowworms clustered together. They gave of an eerie blue light in numbers, and they looked gruesomely slimy when they crawled all along their sticky webs.

Megamind ran into something cold and wet, distracted by the creatures on the ceiling.

GROSS! It was one of the glowworms webs! It hung down like a slimy net, now sticking all over his face and his front. Yuck!

Megamind ran away as glowworms started to make their ways down the web, thinking they had just caught an extremely large meal. Their grotesque little bodies wriggled down the slime surprisingly fast.

"Ugh!" Megamind cried out in disgust. He broke free from the web and wiped the substance off from his face. It felt sickening, even if he did still have gloves on. He even spat out some of the web. Eww…

Still coughing up the slime, Megamind walked on through the tunnel. He turned and took one last look at the glowworms in disgust before stopping abruptly.

In front of him, he could see in the soft light, pools of water.

Not just any natural pools of water. These looked man-made. The water inside the pools was black and impenetrable. Inside the rim of the pools were round little lit lights, even though that still didn't help with the fact that you couldn't see in the water. Megamind looked ahead and saw the same little pools in two rows like runway lights. There were about eleven more on each side before there weren't any more. _Strange._

Megamind observed that each pool was about two feet in diameter. That left three feet for walking between them.

He took a slow step in front of one. Nothing happened.

Still a little shaken, but awed at the elaborateness of the cave, Megamind took slow paces between the pools of water, looking around cautiously.

He still wondered how he got here, and if Narcissa could still be considered his kidnapper. Earlier, when she had pushed him into that wall, Megamind could still remember that he hadn't hit any wall. He had stumbled and then fallen to some sort of ground, like Alice down the rabbit hole.

And this was the "wonderland". Some wonderland. This cavern was creepy, yet gave him a strange sense of adventure that just sparked him.

Megamind heard a rather loud whistle of air coming from somewhere in the cave. He stopped walking and looked around. It sounded like it had come from his right. He leaned towards the sound intently, listening to see if it was a person, or just a natural sound.

No other spectral noise came. Megamind relaxed a little.

But not for long.

He froze in terror when he heard a watery, splashy sound behind him.

Then something hissed.

It wasn't a cat hiss, like Petals would have made. It was ominous.

He whipped around, braced for a horrible creature to attack him.

Even though there was no creature behind him, he gave a small whimper.

One of the small pools' water, which was previously still, had ripples sloshing around in it.

Megamind gulped nervously. What had been there?

He tried to think logically. It could have been a bat swooping down for a drink of water.

But what would explain the hissing sound?

Megamind was seriously getting freaked out. He took a step back and licked his lips before saying, "Whoever's in here, show yourself!"

"Don't be a coward!"

There was no answer for a moment.

"Ok!" A female voice answered. It was high and girlish.

A flurry of giggles followed the reply. They were also high and girlish.

"Show yourself, whoever you are!" Megamind tried to be intimidating, but his voice cracked a little.

Then a pair of slimy, slender hands seized him around the ankles.

"AUGH!" Megamind cried out. He struggled against the hands, but he couldn't budge.

The hands squeezed unforgivingly tighter around his boots.

They pulled. Hard.

And then Megamind fell into one of the pools.

"AUGH!" Megamind screamed again. There were more hands enclosing around him. He desperately clawed at the stone ground of the cavern, trying to get back out of the water, but it was no avail.

He stole a glance at one of the hands gripping his arm. It was green, and the nails were long and the color of a young sproutling. The skin was dotted occasionally by a few darker green freckles, and the hand shone with water.

"AUGH!"

Megamind went under.

He was greeted by mirthful giggles, and there were hands still enclosed around him, pulling him deeper and deeper.

He opened his eyes. Before him, he saw slender maidens with glowing yellow eyes staring back at him, and still giggling chirpily. The women wore thin slips to cover their skinny bodies, and their hair floated around in the water spectrally. It looked like it was made of several thin strings of seaweed, and there were perfectly round pearls nestled miscellaneously in their locks

They all looked almost the same, and each one was very beautiful besides the eerie eyes. Their noses were angular and pert, and their lips were a vibrant shade of dark green.

Even while Megamind was observing them, he still longed for air.

What was he doing? He wasn't even struggling! Well, the maidens were very strong, and they would tug Megamind down harder if he squirmed.

He had to do it suddenly.

One…

Two…

Three!

With all of his remaining strength, Megamind jerked loose of their grasp. The women were shocked into silence, and then one of them squealed.

"Get him! We can't lose him! He's a rare addition to our collection!" The maiden exclaimed in a tinny voice.

Megamind swam as fast as he could. His lungs were burning from lack of air. He looked behind himself. The maidens were gaining on him.

Megamind took in a greedy gasp for air when he reached the surface, but was instantly pulled back under.

"You are NOT escaping, Blue Boy!" He heard one of the women cry out to him. He still was grasping on to the edge of the pool so he could not get pulled under deeper.

His lungs burned again.

Megamind viciously kicked his legs, feeling his foot hit something. Then he heard a garbled scream of pain.

He ignored the cry and barely got another breath of air before he plunged back underwater. His knuckles were white underneath his soaking wet leather gloves from holding on to the edge of the pool so tightly. This time, even more hands were clawing at his ankles angrily.

"You broke my nose!" yelled a voice annoyedly. The maiden that spoke sounded nasal instead of smooth and sultry. Megamind turned his head to look behind him, and he saw one of the maiden's heads above the water, and glowering at him. He grimaced. Her nose was askew, and a glowing green substance was dripping down from it, trickling into the black water like a faucet. He guessed that was her blood color.

The woman with the broken nose tugged on Megamind with all her might. The others did likewise.

"STOP IT!" Megamind roared. With every ounce of his strength, Megamind lurched his body forward violently. The movement was so strong, he narrowly escaped being plunged into the water yet again, and he thrust himself on the cold stone ground. Megamind scooted back and then stood up, backing away from the hands that were groping around the ground to find him so they could pull him under again.

The maidens finally gave up after several seconds. Their eerie hands retracted back into the water, and then all was quiet once again.

Megamind stood stock still, his eyes fixated on the pool he had been yanked into. What the heck WERE those weird creatures? This had to be a dream. This had to be impossible.

Megamind shook his head and bit his bottom lip. He jogged away from the rows of black water so he wouldn't get yanked in again.

And then Megamind remembered what Narcissa had said at dinner. What he had laughed at. Megamind wondered if all that poppycock could actually be…

Real.

It wasn't logical in any way, but it was the only explanation. Sometimes things seemed impossible, but they were true. Some things just worked that way. The impossible truth…

Megamind drew his arms in to himself insecurely. Things were so confusing right now, and it put his brain in a muddle. He didn't know what was real anymore. Anything could be. He didn't know a world like this could even have a chance of existing.

…What was he thinking? This still wasn't logical! Everything he knew was real was logical!

…But what about his De-gun? And his brainbots? No major inventors or any of the government had EVER thought of those. They also thought those things were the stuff of fantasy.

But Megamind's fantasies always seemed to be able to come to life at any given moment.

He fantasized about Roxanne once, and he still did now. It used to seem hopeless, but now look at them. They were in love.

The stinging feeling jabbed at the back of Megamind's emerald eyes, again threatening to spill over past his eyelids and trickle down his cheeks. He squeezed them shut tight.

Megamind still walked way past the rows of pools of water, and on to the rest of the enormous cavern.

His train of thought was derailed when he saw a flash of blue light pierce his eyes suddenly. Then another flash, and then another.

Megamind put his arms up to his face to shield his eyes. Then he walked towards the strange light.

After a little while, Megamind finally came to a large clearing in the cave. It was like a large, round room, kind of like a room in Narcissa's mansion. Except it was made of jagged stone, and stalactites hung like icicles from the ceiling. They reminded Megamind of the sharp sapphires hanging from Narcissa's dining room, the way they spiraled around and ended with a long, pointy stone in the middle.

But that wasn't what made Megamind stand there openmouthed.

There was a _girl._ A girl suspended in midair, clothed in luminescent blue light, hovering above a circular platform. A circular platform with stairs that climbed very high, and at the very top were equally tall wooden beams going around the circumference of the platform, all spaced evenly.

The light was blindingly bright, and it seemed to come from the tip of a large stalactite that hung right above the girl's head.

The light swirled and cascade around the girl spectrally. She made not a move, though her hair was whipping about wildly. It went in front of her face, and up and out, the tendrils waving and lashing around.

Megamind dared to climb the stairs leading up to the top of the platform. Even though the blue light was impossibly bright, he could see more of the girl's features, and more of her surroundings. There was one of those small pools of water right below the girl where she was hovering. The pool Megamind had been yanked into by the strange maidens.

He cringed when he saw a seaweed-haired head briefly poke out of the water, and then back in. Megamind was officially scared of those creatures. He remembered that one maiden whose nose he had broken, and the furious look she had in her eyes while her nose was askew and dripping green blood in the water.

Megamind stayed near a wooden beam, looking at the girl floating in midair. He could see that her eyes were closed, her arms slightly outstretched, and her toes pointed downwards. She wore a turtleneck sweater, pleated skirt, and Uggs boots.

Megamind inched a little closer, but not so close that the light burned his eyes. He wondered if the girl was real. It didn't look 2-D. The hair looked pretty authentic.

But then Megamind's focus swayed elsewhere from the mysterious girl.

Roxanne.

Minion.

Narcissa.

Death.

Megamind was all alone. He hoped the girl couldn't hear him if she was real.

He keeled to the ground and sat on his knees. He bowed his blue head hopelessly.

And then he sang. They weren't any real words, just a sad, depressed melody. He did that when he was feeling downcast and worthless. His voice was quite good, actually. But he only did it when he was absolutely certain that there was no one hearing him. He was afraid that they would ask him to sing repeatedly, his voice was that handsome.

As Megamind kept singing, he got more and more crestfallen. It was giving him a headache; a dull pain that spread everywhere.

He didn't much care. He was too engrossed in his song.

He sang louder and harder.

Before he knew it, all that vexed him was pushing at the back of his eyes again. This time, it was stronger and more persistent.

The feeling fueled the sadness in his melody. The stinging became stronger in his green orbs. They were already glassy as he kept on singing.

Then a single tear leaked out of his oval eye.

Megamind's heart beat faster and faster as his song became deeper, with more feeling. It compeled him to cry harder.

And then he was crumpled on the ground in a heap, alternating between singing and mourning. The tears streamed out of his eyes endlessly. He had never cried like this before, no matter how cheerless and gloomy and heartbroken he felt. He always kept this powerful feeling deep inside him, where no one could penetrate it. What would people think of him if they saw this side of him? His reputation would be ripped to shreds.

He just kept on crying. He didn't feel like he would ever be happy again.

Megamind let the tears roll. It was the only thing that would satisfy him now.

And his singing became more somber.

The tears blinded him, and he didn't notice that, behind him, the blue light was diminishing. And the girl was getting lower and lower to the ground.

Megamind was too busy wallowing in grief to ever notice.

But then he heard a scream. And then a splash.

Megamind jolted up from the ground, tears still streaming out of his emerald eyes. His chest heaved. The girl was no longer hovering in the air. She was obviously in the black pool with the strange maidens in it. The water in there was thrashing wildly about.

Out of instinct, Megamind decided he should help her. He couldn't make clear decisions when his mind was so foggy. He knew what those green maidens were like. They tried to drown him.

It was one thing to try to drown an adult. But killing a child just like that… it was treason.

Even though Megamind's limbs were weak, he clambered to his feet and ran over to peer over the edge of the pool. There was a flurry of green hands clashing with the occasional couple of pale peach ones.

And then Megamind briefly saw the girl's face poke out of the water. It scared him at first… were there no pupils in her eyes?

"HELP ME!" she cried desperately. Her voice was feminine, yet tough. Her hair was a fiery orange, and now soaking wet.

Megamind got as close as he could without risking being yanked into the water. When he saw the girl's hands come to the surface, he grabbed a firm hold of them. She immediately grasped back on his wrists, holding on for dear life.

Megamind pulled. He pulled as hard as he could without the possibility of dislocating her arm socket. He could feel that he was making progress, even when he was trying madly not to slip around on the water that had splashed out from the pool.

After pulling some more, the girl finally came out of the grasp of the maidens, and then tumbled out of the pool.

Megamind didn't look at the girl. He wasn't finished crying.

He collapsed back to the ground and kept right on weeping. He didn't care that the girl was watching him. He didn't even know her.

Megamind's body shook as the tears trickled down his face. There was nothing that would ever make him happy again.

Then he felt a gentle hand being placed on his shoulder.

Megamind tried to wipe the tears away from his face, even though they still streamed down his cheekbones. He turned his head to look at the girl.

Strangely enough, he wasn't scared by the fact that she had no pupils, or whites of her eyes. There was just a big, blue iris on her whole eyeball. The blue was vibrant, a shade of luridness that matched Megamind's shade of green in his wide oval eyes.

The sapphire eyes were tipped with fluttery lashes, and above those, were thin eyebrows that were sober. The girl was staring at him openmouthed.

Then the girl stood up and got a better look at Megamind.

She gasped.

"You're…you're an…an…_alien._" She mumbled with her hand covering her red lips.

Megamind looked at her with his pained eyes, still spilling tears on the stone ground.

"Th…thank you for freeing me… Blue Alien."

The girl's eyes were sympathetic as she looked into Megamind's sadly.

She kneeled down next to him. Megamind tried to sit up, but he was too weak. As he tried to support his weight with his shaking arms, he fell right back down, clutching at the incision Narcissa had made in his chest earlier. The least he did was stand his elbow on the stone ground, and sit up just a little with his shoulder jutting out.

"Can't you get up?" The girl asked slowly. Megamind shook his head. More tears were still dripping from his gaudy green eyes.

The girl bit her lip.

"Why… why are you crying?"

She looked down at him with worried eyes. She twiddled her thumbs a bit.

Megamind turned over to lie down on his back. The water from his eyes dribbled down the sides of his head.

"Narcissa…" he choked out at last. "Narcissa's going to…kill her."

"Kill who?" The girl's eyes suddenly shone with fury. She stamped her foot loudly, and it echoed inside the cave.

Then her face softened. "Sorry. It's just, I can't STAND Narcissa."

"It's alright", Megamind mumbled. He found the strength to recline on his elbows. A few tears were still left trickling down his cheeks.

The girl kneeled closer to him and carefully wiped them away from his face, using her smooth thumb, and cradling his cheek in her hand. And then she shyly took her hand away.

"Sorry. I just hate seeing people cry", the girl shook her head, spraying some droplets of water from her red hair. She blushed slightly.

And that was when Megamind really saw that she had a stitched up scar slashed across her left cheek angrily. It was long and jagged, and it went from the side of her sapphire eye to a little bit away from the corner of her mouth. It looked ghastly.

"What's your name, Alien?" The girl asked.

Megamind swallowed before answering, "It's Megamind. My maiden name was Johnny Blue, but I abandoned it. Narcissa is still being annoying by calling me Johnny."

The girl's eyes brightened a little. "That's kind of funny", she said, "because my name's Megan."

Megamind gave a weak smile.

Then he asked her, "Umm… how were you up there floating in blue light? And when I started crying, you fell into that pool of…whatchamacalits." Megamind pointed his finger and trailed it down in the air, mimicking Megan's fall.

"It's a long story, and I'll explain it to you, but first I'll tell you what's in the pool."

Megan took a deep breath.

"They're naiads."

Megamind felt tempted to laugh, but he didn't. He couldn't laugh when he had just finished crying, and he didn't laugh because…there was a slight possibility…

All of this could be real.

Argh! But it wasn't logical!

Megamind put a hand to his head. He didn't want to believe this.

But sometimes you have to believe what you don't want to. That's sometimes the only way to open up so you can ask for help.

Megamind exhaled through pursed lips. He gave Megan an innocent look, his eyes even still with a couple tears left in them. "I'll try to believe that", Megamind said with a shrug. "But this is just too much to absorb." The blue alien drew his scrawny legs up to his chest. He buried his face in his knees. The remaining tears he had left fell from his emerald orbs.

Megan was a little indignant.

"Look up here, Megamind", she said with a slight scowl. Megamind lifted his head up to look at the redhead. "If this won't prove anything, nothing will."

Megan started to remove her green sweater. At first Megamind grimaced, but then his mouth softened. Underneath her turtleneck was a tank top, and it looked made out of leaves. It clung to her body and showed that it was indeed very skinny.

And then Megamind almost screamed.

Were those… could it be… WHAT?

WINGS ON HER BACK?

Megamind inched backwards, his chest heaving again. Those weren't any ordinary gossamer wings.

Those silvery wings that protruded from Megan's pale back were mutilated. Ripped to shreds. They looked pitiful, and Megan looked ashamed of them.

"Disbelieve all you want", Megan snarled. She didn't mean to, but she snarled. "But it's the solid truth. I'm a fairy. And I have some prett-y good stories of abuse. Narcissa is a MONSTER!" Megan said her last sentence rather loudly.

And then she sat down cross-legged on the stone ground. Her face looked apologetic.

"My third time apologizing, but, sorry. I didn't want to yell like that. I'm making a terrible first impression, aren't I?" Megan cocked her thin eyebrow.

Megamind was still speechless.

Oh…My…Gosh. There was an actual _fairy_ standing in front of him.

This wasn't logical.

But it was true.

Megamind put a hand to his heart, right next to his scar. Ok. He had to believe this.

Breathe in… Breathe out. There.

"It's fine", Megamind croaked, his throat still hoarse from crying. "I'm having a hard time processing all this, but I believe. Just tell me one thing:

"What is going ON?"

Megan walked over to Megamind and placed two hands upon his shoulders. She gently helped him stand up. "Well, first, I need to know more about you, Megamind. Then I'll tell you." Megan's tone was calm, but it still had a slight edge of anxiousness.

Megan looked Megamind up and down. "Erm… one little observation", she said sneakily.

"Man, you are SKINNY!"

This time Megamind laughed. He knew he was as big as a twig. But the way Megan said it made him just laugh.

"Seriously, dude, do you use Cheerios for hula-hoops?" Megan added, a mirthful smile growing across her face. Megamind knew he would like this kid. At least she had a sense of humor.

"…No offense, but do you have anorexia?" Megan asked cautiously. The two of them sat back down on the stone ground. "Or is that just your body type? Where are you from anyway?"

"Whoa, slow down, Meg", Megamind put his hands up in front of himself. Then he rubbed his blue head again. "Wow…I have such a headache…"

"That can be remedied!" Megan immediately piped up. Megamind cocked his eyebrow. Megan stood up and drew nearer to him, and then stopped about two feet in front of him.

She closed her eyes, faced her palms outward towards Megamind, and stood in silence for a moment.

"LASHARRRRGA!" Megan suddenly yelled an unintelligible word. Megamind saw a flash of red light, and then he was knocked backwards.

Even though he had hit his head on the stone ground, his headache was magically gone.

Literally.

He sat up, and saw Megan several feet away, leaning against a wooden beam. Her bosom heaved.

"…Ow…" Megan murmured.

Megamind looked around uncertainly. Once again, he had to believe if it was a spell Megan had just cast on him.

"I'm ok!" Megan said before Megamind could interject. "I can't work magic well when I'm in captivity. Plus, I'm sorta new at it", she explained.

Megamind gave a reckless smile. "Well it worked! Thank you." He stroked the back of his head, still amazed that magic existed. It actually _existed. _

"My kind learns magic at ten years old. I'm twelve, and I was kidnapped when I was ten and three months, so there wasn't much time to practice magic when…" Megan started to inform Megamind eagerly, but then her face fell. Her knees started shaking, and then she collapsed.

Megamind leaped to his feet and ran over to her.

"What's wrong?" he asked hesitantly. He squatted down to Megan's level and saw that she was hyperventilating.

"See this scar?" Megan whimpered. She pointed to the scar on her face and then swallowed.

"Narcissa cut all the way through my cheek with her knife."

Megamind's hand flew up to his mouth. Now that he was hero of Metro City, he had already rescued many children that had been viciously abused, and he had seen some pretty bad cases. And he had come to care a lot for children, as long as they didn't swarm.

This made Megamind hate Narcissa even more.

Megamind was speechless again.

"She also cut me on the stomach, and there are three scars on each of my legs", Megan pointed to each scar as she spoke. Megamind looked at them openmouthed. Most of them looked pretty deep, and all of them had crooked stitches sewing the flesh together.

"I had to sew all these closed by myself."

"Whoa…" Megamind could think of nothing else to say for such cruelty. What a blackhearted beast Narcissa was.

Megamind, without thinking, trailed his finger along the scabby surface of Megan's scar on her face. There was a miffed expression in his eyes when he looked even more closely at it.

"You have _your_ first scar", Megan murmured, touching Megamind's chest softly. Then she shyly drew her hand back again.

"Too much contact…" she said through her teeth almost inaudibly.

Megamind gave a small, partly humorless laugh. Poor Megan. She looked like she had been through so much abuse.

"I guarantee, Narcissa is going to make a lot more scars on you, Megamind."

"Crud."

Megan snorted a little. "I personally think that's too bad. I have to say, you're a pretty good-looking alien", Megan complimented him with a humble shrug. Her sparkly cerulean eyes were earnest.

"I know", Megamind purred melodramatically.

"Oh, a narcissist we have here, do we?" Megan joked.

"Say it if you will."

They both laughed softly. And then their eyes met. Megamind felt a strong feeling of friendship with Megan. They had both been through a lot of beating, and Megamind was sorry for her.

Megamind smiled at Megan. It wasn't s charming as a smile he would have flashed at Roxanne, but it was endearing nonetheless.

Roxanne. Megamind felt the tears blossom in his eyes again.

"So Megamind," Megan took a deep breath. She ran her hand through her orange hair, and toyed with the red bow clip she had nestled between her bangs and the shell of her ear.

"What's your story? What has Narcissa done to you?"

Megamind wouldn't have normally worn his feelings on his sleeve, but he cared about Megan, so he told her. He told her about how he became defender of Metro City. He told her about Roxanne, and even the incident that happened when he pretended he was Bernard. He even told her his true feelings for Roxanne.

Megan listened intently to each word. She didn't react beyond asking an occasional question, but after Megamind had finished, tears were brimming in her soulful eyes.

She understood what Megamind had been through as a child. Nothing but rejection and exclusion.

And then Megamind had finally thought he had found someone to love.

And then that person had been torn away from him, and his heart ripped to shreds.

And least he regained Roxanne. Megan wasn't sure if she would ever regain Aidan.

"Megamind…" Megan whispered, "…I…I know how you feel."

"You do?" Megamind was incredulous. No one, not even Roxanne had ever said anything like this to him.

It made him feel…complete.

"I was exactly like you when I was a kid. Except possibly even worse."

Megamind's eyes widened. Worse? No one could be worse than he had been.

"Because the only friends that actually liked me were forbidden to be with me", Megan said in a small voice. She absently picked at a hangnail as she spoke.

"Well I had no friends at all, so…" Megamind trailed off. Having no friends to grow up with was one thing. But being compatible with TWO other friends, and then be forbidden to hang out with them? That might've been more painful.

Megan sucked at the side of her thumb, which was bleeding because she had succeeded at removing the irksome little hangnail.

She continued. "So, since I thought that was completely unfair, I always snuck out whenever I could just to be with them even for a minute. They meant that much to me. Especially…" Megan bit her lip when the dreamy tone came into her voice.

"…Especially who?" Megamind urged.

Megan hid her face in her hands, and then mumbled, "Aidan…"

Megamind smirked. This was a possible crush she had here! Megamind remembered the days of high school. His first crush was, and always had been from then on…

Roxanne. Megamind rolled his head back to face the ceiling studded with stalactites. Roxanne always seemed to come into all these conversations, and that made Megamind all the more determined to find her at any cost.

Megan wasn't finished.

"I was forbidden to be with Aidan and Annabelle because, centuries ago, there was a three-way war between our people and theirs. Yet we still liked each other, so I decided to quit the goody-goody act I had been acting like at home, and I was defiant no matter how many times my parents punished me for sneaking out.

"And the time when I REALLY got in trouble was when I piped up just a little too loudly. I suggested that we make peace with the Infernoi people, and the cloudsprites.

"I ate soap for about an hour. More like it was force-fed to me.

"Narcissa captured me when I was ten, and just months into learning magic. It happened on my way into the human realm, when trying to visit Aidan. I felt paralyzed, right about when I was in midair.

"Then I plummeted to the ground, and Narcissa bound me up in no time.

"And… that was when she pried so much information out of me, I accidentally told her where to find Aidan and Annabelle.

"Once she had them, I was so bloody mad, I pulverized my old prison cell. Then I swore that she was going to pay someday.

"That's when I became leader of the Rebels."

Megamind was quite interested in Megan's story.

"What're the Rebels?" He asked.

"There are five people in it. Me, Annabelle, Aidan, Eboni, and…and…" Megan caught herself midsentence for an unknown reason.

"…And who?"

"Never mind", Megan muttered, shaking her head. Megamind cocked his eyebrow, confused.

What he didn't know, Megan was keeping that last name from him, because she was afraid how he would react. She wasn't sure if he would remember that long-lost name, or if he wouldn't. Megan just kept it from him, because she just didn't know.

"But I think you're pretty eligible", she said positively. There was eagerness brimming in her sparkly azure eyes. She seemed to angle them up in thought, though Megamind couldn't tell, with there being only a blue iris on the whole eyeball.

"You've been through traumatic experiences, when you were a kid, and…recently."

Megamind felt as though he had received a swift punch in the stomach. It even made him cough a little, now to have Roxanne filling up most of his mind. He missed her so much.

When the prickly, moist feeling stabbed at the back of his bottle green eyes, he scrunched them shut. He didn't want to cry again. That would mean a bizarre sequence of alternating between singing a crestfallen melody, and sobbing. Even though his voice was incredibly attractive, he still didn't want to weep.

"Being torn apart from your lovelife, and all. And then the nerve of Narcissa threatening to _kill_ her for no good reason, that's just… _brutal."_

Megamind moaned in pain.

"Sorry for mentioning that", Megan quickly apologized, "but it does make you vengeful, doesn't it?"

"Talk about it!" Megamind grumbled. He curled his fingers to the ceiling to contain the anger.

"So there are some agreements you have to make." Megan's tone was deathly serious. "I mean, to become a Rebel and stop Narcissa in her hideous tracks. She really does plan to take over the world, once she has us enslaved, but we're not about to let that happen, are we?"

"Never. I'll beat her to a pulp if I ever find Roxanne", Megamind declared. "And get the glory of saving the world as we know it," he added with a glimmer of anticipation in his eyes. A slight smile spread across his blue lips at the thought.

Hmph. His moods were changing quickly, he just noted. One minute he was excited at the prospect of his biggest save ever, and then another, he was in the doldrums, worrying about Roxanne. Those two emotions were competing for attention in his large blue head, each with their own excuse as to which was the most important to be thinking about.

_Find Roxanne at any cost!_ The worry cried.

_Roxanne is a small matter right now! What's more important? Her or the Earth? _Went the gnawing, aggravating spark of proudness and glory.

_But Roxanne is the only one you'll ever love. Face it Megamind, you can do both. Save the world, and your sweetheart. _

Hey, that was it! He shouldn't have these weird "mood swings." Just a spark of confidence.

The only thing that lay chewing at the back of his mind was the possibility of Roxanne being dead.

Megan continued on. "To swear yourself in to Rebel-hood, first you have to slap-swear."

Megamind cocked his slender brow. "Um…I didn't quite understand that…"

"Slap me", Megan simply said, completely unfazed. "By doing so, you will swear to, One: tell the truth and nothing but the truth to the fellow Rebels. Two: have no slight thought of EVER betraying us or our mission. Three: be willing to make sacrifices, and Four: never give up on ANYTHING." Megan listed all the pacts.

Megamind listened to the agreements, but was confused at the "slap-swear" part.

"Ok, but… I have to slap you? Seriously?" Megamind's voice was reluctant. "You've been through enough pain. The looks of your scars prove it."

"Just slap me, I don't care!" Megan urged with an encouraging smile. "It's the only way to seal the swear. Plus, I made up this ritual myself. I wouldn't include slapping of the face if I didn't honestly want to include that."

Megamind reached a hesitant hand forth, recoiling it a little a few times.

Then he lamely patted the side of Megan's face once.

"Harder! Like, hard, hard!" Megan laughed.

"Fine."

Megamind slapped Megan quickly so he could get it over with. The sound of the impact with his hand on her skin resounded through the cavern.

Megan only winced, and didn't so much as utter a cry, even though she rocked backward once in pain, holding the side of her face, which had a large red mark on it. It was on the other cheek, not the one with the scar slashed across it.

"Ok!" She squeaked. "My turn!"

Megan reached forth and slapped Megamind right back in a whiplike motion.

"What was that for?" He exclaimed, rubbing his left cheek. It had a purple mark on it.

"All slap swears require that the Rebel –that's me—and the Amateur—that's you—be slapped once by each other", she explained. Megamind gave an amused smirk. "That's quite an agreement."

The two sat in silence for a while, a few spectral noises resounding in the cave at times.

"So I have a plan for tomorrow", Megan broke the silence. "We first need to find Annabelle. And then I'll help as much as I can with finding Roxanne, but there are no promises."

Megamind groaned inwardly.

"Then we should go find Eboni, Aidan, and… K…Kaitioa."

Megan hesitated to say that last name. Would Megamind know?

He didn't, really, but it sounded familiar. Like, so familiar, it was burning a hole in his head while he tried to figure out where he had heard that name before.

"But I think we should be careful when we find Annabelle, because…well…It's hard to explain", Megan said slowly.

"Shoot."

"Well", Megan said, "first of all, she might act like she knows you. And… it might involve weird music revolving around you, and Annabelle bumping into things like mad. She'll probably make a really fuzzy first impression; even worse than mine."

Megamind didn't follow any of that.

Megan seemed to understand the weird look on his face, because the waved her hand a little, and muttered, "Never mind."

There were a few more seconds of silence before Megan yawned. Then she groped around the ground to find her sweater that she had taken off before, and slipped it back on over her leafy blouse.

"You know, we've been talking for nearly two hours", Megan informed Megamind. She stretched and yawned.

"You can't possibly be tired", Megamind said, surprised. "Isn't it…like…kind of sleeping when you were in the blue light? You had your eyes closed."

"It's not the same", Megan explained. "It's suspended animation, sort of. I couldn't move, hear, see, talk, or even breathe. But I could think. It's enough to make you go insane."

Megamind had one more question. "How did you suddenly drop back down when I…got here?" He caught himself in the last sentence, not wanting to mention how hard he had cried.

"These prisons have a very funny way of opening", Megan shrugged. "They open when they want to. But only if something provokes them. I guess you provoked mine with that beautiful sad melody of yours."

Megamind turned his head away, embarrassed. Was it his fault that Roxanne had grown on him, and attached herself to him like a… like a very…beautiful…barnacle?

"Well… that's good, then, I guess." Megamind's tone got tired as he spoke.

"What time do you think it is?"

"Close to midnight, probably", Megan estimated.

"I've stayed up waaaaay later than that. Days, even. But I'm just so tired after all that's happened today", Megamind sobered at the last sentence. His emerald eyes got a little prickly again. Maybe, in the darkness, Megan wouldn't see him possibly cry himself to sleep.

But he still didn't want to cry again.

Megan found a decent spot on the stone ground to lie down on, and then curled up there. She was asleep within minutes. She looked kind of like Sleeping Beauty in that position. This girl _was_ actually quite beautiful despite the scar that marred her cheek. Her pale skin was flawless; even after all she had said to have been through.

Megamind's eyes suddenly got heavy, and then he curled up in a fetal position on the ground, and fell fast asleep.

* * *

><p>AN Aww... poor angsty Megs :( I don't know where I got Megamind singing when he's sad from, but I think I imagined it up myself... I just liked how broody it seemed! So how did you like Megan? Does her name seem too... I don't know, regular? :/ I guess I had a blockage of creativeness in my brain when I made her up.

Oh, and plus, wanna know why I've posted my chapters so quickly? It's not because my laptop is glued to my lap, it's because it's prewritten. I actually started this story in July. I'm still working on it though. On chapter 22. I'll post 12 when I get around to it!


	12. Chapter 12

Bleu Leather

Chapter 12

Megamind couldn't tell if it was morning or not, but his "body clock" told him to wake up.

Ugh, he felt horrible! Sleeping on stone ground was SO uncomfortable! He awoke with his throat sore, and his eyes still heavy. His blue lips were chapped, and his back was also sore.

"Oggg…" He moaned. This felt like what he called a caffeine breakdown. Whenever he drank a few cups too many of coffee, he always ended up getting severely hyper and spazzy. It was almost a sugar rush, but without the sugar. Caffeine made him feel like Frankenstein with a few extra volts of electricity left over from the day.

Results were monstrous, if he didn't play with his brainbots so he could spend his energy on them. If the brainbots were unavailable, he was capable of ripping a chandelier clear out of the ceiling.

Overall mood when in a caffeine rush: It's Hammer Time!

But then he completely crashed and shut down when the coffee wore off. He became shaky and weak, and just a little groggy. It was the kind of feeling humans get when they have the beginnings of a cold. Megamind had never gotten sick with a virus, but he knew what it felt like in a mild dose.

It was a really…yucky feeling.

Megamind rolled over to his other side to face Megan. She was still soundly asleep, again resembling Sleeping Beauty. Megamind laughed a little when he pictured her clutching a rose in her hands and a simple golden tiara atop her head.

He observed that she had taken her boots off in the night. Now that Megamind thought of it, it _was_ a bit muggy in the cave now. There was sweat that collected uncomfortably in his spandex suit.

Her tiny feet were pale and dainty. They, too, were as flawless as her face (except for the scar).

Megan confused him. She just seemed so tough, and she looked so pretty.

In a few minutes, Megan's azure eyes fluttered awake, and she was on her feet almost immediately. Megamind saw that she wasn't even groggy, or any of the sort. She was as perky as anyone was at midday.

"Morning!" Megan said in a chipper tone.

"Well, it's not a good one, that's for sure." Megamind rubbed his eyes.

"Maybe for you. I'm always up in an instant when I wake up. I'm never tired unless I get under seven hours of sleep", Megan explained.

"Ick", Megamind muttered. "I just feel horrible. I never feel this bad unless I drink three cups of coffee, and then the result when the caffeine wears off."

Megan almost laughed. She would've, if he didn't look ill like that.

"Um… I can fix it if you want me to", She offered. "My magic has a shaky pattern in captivity, but it's pretty non-buggy today."

"Be my guest", Megamind said.

Megan knelt down to his level and placed her hand atop Megamind's big blue head. She closed her eyes, uttered something through pursed lips, and then took her hand away gently.

It was as if she had sucked the bad feeling right out of him like a vacuum! He felt fine now!

Megamind's eyes widened until they looked like his normal perky self. All the aches he had on his body dissolved. He felt suddenly a lot stronger.

Megamind stood up easily. "Thanks", he said to Megan.

And then Megan blushed, for her stomach suddenly gave a long growl.

"Ah-ha-ha-ha", She stammered. Against her pale skin, her blush looked like a sunset. "I forgot that I've basically been in hibernation for about a month. And the only thing in this cave is water."

"Better than nothing", Megamind said with a shrug. "How do we filter it?"

"You don't", Megan said. "This water is the purest on Earth, for some weird reason. I thought Narcissa was a creature of darkness."

They both gave a small laugh.

"So… I basically catch it in my mouth from stalactites? Or drink from a puddle?" Megamind asked with an embarrassed grimace.

"Do your best dog impression", Megan said, "because you're going to want more at a time than little drops. Like I said before, best stuff on Earth."

"Dang it."

This time they both laughed a bit uncomfortably.

Megan led Megamind further down the cave where there was an abundance of natural puddles. For some reason, Megamind was a little paranoid that a naiad would pop out at him or something. He couldn't get the image of the one with its nose broken and green blood pouring out of it out of his giant blue head. His memory was highly developed, and most details of every moment of his life were permanently etched in his mind.

The one he liked best was when Roxanne had kissed him a mere twenty-four hours ago. He still had a tingly feeing on his lips from that.

ARGH! Roxanne! He couldn't stop obsessing about her welfare!

And plus, it seemed like forever ago that she had kissed him. Everything that happened had dragged along so slowly. He didn't know why.

Megan got on her knees and lapped up water like a dog. Then she slurped it. She alternated between these odd noises for a while before Megamind rolled his eyes and got on his knees as well.

It was embarrassing! He actually did feel like a dog! Although, the water was extremely refreshing, as Megan had described it. It didn't have a metallic tang, or mineral taste whatsoever. It was completely pure and delicious.

Megamind spent a good five minutes straight drinking the water. He had found himself to be quite thirsty after the first few seconds.

It still didn't replace food, though. The water sloshed around in his stomach when he sat back up. He didn't realized he had drunk that much. The water was just so good!

Then he felt a strange feeling well up in his throat. What was that feeling? He had never gotten it before. It couldn't have been the water, could it?

And then a strange noise came out of his mouth involuntarily. His gloved hand flew up to cover it, hoping there wouldn't be another sound again.

It still came once more. His cheeks flushed a bright violet. The noise came so strongly, it made his abdomen shudder with a jolt of pain.

His first case of hiccups. _In his whole life._

The sounds came uncontrollably, his diaphragm pulsing with every _hic._

This was even more embarrassing than when he had actually drunk the water! Megamind tried to hold back the noises, but they forced their ways through, and out his mouth. It hurt more than he would think. And it made his voice sound funny. Warped, even.

Megan's head whipped up and faced Megamind. A smile coursed her wet lips and then she started laughing hysterically.

Then she hiccupped loudly as well. Hers were more shrill and drawn-out.

"JEEZ! I forgot that this water also gives you—HIC!—a severe case of hiccups for—HIC!—at least a few hours! HIC!"

"You—HURP!—don't say!" Megamind shot back. His hiccups were different than hers, and more weird-sounding. He growled in frustration and hiccupped again. He had never experienced this nuisance of a body function before. He slapped at where he estimated his diaphragm to be, forcing out another loud hiccup.

"Stop, you menace! HURP!" He spoke out loud out of annoyance. He covered his mouth again, trying to muffle the persistent hiccups. It was no use. The sounds wormed out between his fingers, resounding around the cave in synchrony with Megan's hiccups.

"Don't you—HURP!—have any sort of—HURP!—miracle cure for this, Megan?" Megamind said inbetween the noises escaping his mouth. These hiccups hurt so badly.

"Sadly, no—HIC!—I don't. There is no spell for—HIC!—that."

"Just great." Megamind half-hiccupped, half-talked. His cheeks still had the lilac hue from blushing. Hiccups were bloody annoying!

"We should—HIC!—keep walking. We need to—HIC!—find a way out of here." Megan's tone was a bit foggy due to the hiccups.

"Maybe Annabelle can—HIC!—remedy these bloody hiccups. I hate 'em." Megan snarled. "Plus, she's—HIC!—more advanced at magic than—HIC!—me."

Megamind didn't bother to correct her grammar. After all, he pronounced words incorrectly all the time. And his reply would sometimes be, "Potato tomato."

The two stood up, hiccups persistent, and walked on through the endless cavern. They continuously blushed with each little explosion of that annoying noise. They were the only two noises for… they didn't know how big this cave was. "Have you—HURP!—ever escaped from—HURP!—here?" Megamind asked Megan. Instead of speaking between hiccups, she merely shook her head no.

"But Narcissa has probably—HIC!—rigged some sort of—HIC!—emergency escape—HIC!—for herself", She tried to explain. Hiccups had never hurt so much.

Pretty soon, they were walking, and doubled over from the pain in their diaphragms. Megamind even wondered for a second if he would…_ hiccup_ up blood. He was in that much agony.

They tried everything. Holding their breaths didn't help. Drinking more water certainly didn't help. Not even doing handstands, or anything of that traditional sort.

"I'm—HURP!—dying here!" Megamind wheezed. "Are these—HURP!—deadly hiccups or—HURP!—something?" he demanded. Megan shrugged and then hiccupped.

"I'm going to—HIC!—find Annabelle—HIC!—if it's the last thing I do. Because I—HIC!—can't take another—HIC!—second of this", Megan's sentences were so much longer with this ailment they both had.

The only time Megan really got freaked out was when Megamind collapsed on the stone ground, his body shaking with hiccups.

And his prediction had been weirdly right. He ended up with little droplets of blood dripping out of his mouth.

"Oh my—HIC!—gosh!" She exclaimed. She had a worried and disgusted grimace on her face. "You're lucky I—HIC!—know how to—HIC!—clot blood!" she said, remembering the spell. It was a short one, luckily. She waited for the right time when there would be no hiccup of interruption, and then covered Megamind's mouth.

"Iys", she simply uttered. Megamind stopped hiccupping up blood in a tiny flash of purple light. He stood up and wiped the red droplets from his lips. He gave Megan a weak smile in thanks.

They walked on. And then they came to a fork in the path.

One of the paths veered off to the left and into splotchy darkness. The other went straight ahead and was spotted with the occasional naiad pool.

Megamind shuddered out of fear, and because of a hiccup. At least, he thought, I'm not hiccupping in front of Roxanne. THAT would be mortifying.

Megan's eyes like giant glinting tanzanites widened in excitement. She resembled Megamind when he had the endearing excitement of a six-year-old. She hiccupped and then licked her red lips eagerly.

"I think I just found our way out of here, Megs", Megan said as a smile creased her lips.

Megamind, ignoring his new nickname, stood stock still. "Pretty PLEASE tell me the correct path is naiad-free!" He pleaded, folding his hands together melodramatically as if to pray for mercy. Megan giggled. And then her face straightened seriously.

"Don't be a chicken. We can take those naiads!" Megan's eyes sparkled. She smiled recklessly. Then she hiccupped.

"No, at least I can't", Megamind maintained. "Naiads have been added along with my phobia of spiders."

Megan seemed to roll her eyes, and this time Megamind noticed that she had. He didn't look closely enough before to see that she had two darker blue spot on her eyes. They acted as very faint pupils.

"For a genius like you, who's kicked the derrière of that Titan guy you told me about, you sure can be a coward!" She exclaimed. "Naiads can't even come out of the water without turning into a mortal! And that's the last thing on their minds. They are so vain, and they laugh at the way we grow old so quickly and then die just like that." Megan gave a rather loud hiccup at the end of her explanation. And that was saying a lot, since a normal one of these hiccups was as loud as a blender.

Megamind shook his head in a frazzle. He was still trying to process all this magical creature stuff, and it wasn't terribly easy. He half-successfully gulped down a blossoming hiccup before taking a fearful step back.

"Then imagine this, Blusie", Megan said. "Imagine the naiads are teddy bears. Teddy bears wearing ballerina tutus and roller skates and big frilly bows. You'll be less afraid. In fact, imagine the same thing even when you see a harmless little jumping spider."

Megamind scowled at the nicknames Megan kept giving him. He scowled, too, at the knowing that he cringed at the sight of even a little beetle that he saw for a second, and _thought _was a spider.

In fact, that had happened once when he was studying a heavy science textbook in his Lair. He was sitting peacefully in his high-backed leather wheely chair, totally calm. Until, out of the corner of his vivid eye, he saw some insect moving across his desk, skittering along.

It looked so much like a spider.

He uttered a lady scream, stood up, and bashed the textbook repeatedly on his desk, bouncing paper, staplers, and tape dispensers on the floor from the vibrations.

After the tenth smash, he had stopped abruptly and looked at the yellowish remains of the bug with a grimace. He could see just enough, six crippled legs attached and detached from the body.

The body that was of a beetle. A harmless little scarab beetle!

He had given himself a hearty facepalm, and when he peeked out between his fingers, he could see Minion staring back at him through his glass dome. There was a weird look on his face that said,_ Did you forget how to count? Because spiders have eight legs, Sir._

Megamind pouted as he remembered that awkward moment. Then he got back to the prospect of how to face the naiads.

For a seldom moment, he actually almost asked Megan if she would carry him past those pools. He didn't want to even tread a toe on the ground around a naiad pool.

Megamind snorted a little at the image he had just planted in his head. But he bit his lip, and then hiccupped to disguise his laugh.

_Thank you, hiccup! I never thought I'd thank a nuisance like you!_

"That might help. Slightly", Megamind said with an uncomfortable shrug.

"Be warned. I'll laugh if you scream like a girl", Megan said mischievously.

"And I'll do likewise, kid", Megamind shot back. They both uttered a bizarre combination of laughter and loud hiccups.

Megan finally strode towards the naiad-infested path, Megamind following closely behind. Megan had an air of confidence as she walked, while Megamind was a bit hunched over in fear. He almost stepped on the back of her Uggs boots as he walked behind her, braced for a naiad to pop out at any given moment.

It was hard to conceal their presence when they both had a death case of hiccups from that darned water.

Megamind heard multiple pools ripple at the same time, and then saw the green heads of slender maidens surface and glare at the two incessantly.

They were surrounded. Megamind panicked, because the narrow path of a tunnel was just that—narrow.

Then he uttered a childish cry. Megan elbowed him away when he grasped onto her for safety.

"Watch and—HIC!—learn, Megamind", Megan said smugly. She tried to make her voice sound powerful, but the hiccup ruined it.

She stepped forth closely to one of the naiad pools so that her toes were touching the edges. Her arms clothed in green knit fabric were crossed in front of her. She shot a menacing glare at the naiad ogling back at her. Her eyes sniped, _I can beat you, easy-peasy. _

The naiad's hand whipped forth, in attempt to grab Megan by the ankles.

Megan was too fast for it.

She swiftly jumped out of the way, and then stomped as hard as she could on the jade-colored hand.

"EEEIII!" The naiad screeched. Megan took one more move and kicked the creature in the face. The naiad screamed again, and dove back underwater in surrender.

Megan turned around, and saw that Megamind was biting where his fingernails were, and instead getting a mouthful of dirty leather. He took his hand away from his mouth and spat out the unpleasant taste.

"You kicked that naiad's butt, Megan!" Megamind yelled eagerly. Even though he was terrified of the things, it gave him a strange, satisfied feeling to see it getting crippled. It made him feel more powerful. "High—HURP!—five!"

Megan slapped Megamind's gloved hand happily. Then they bounded on to defeat the next naiads.

While Megan took care of one with pointed ears and dangly earrings, Megamind was facing one with her hair in a straggly bun pinned up with mother-of-pearl chopsticks. He loomed over it with a confident scowl. It hissed at him.

"You think I'm—HURP!—afraid of you?" He jeered. Those bloody hiccups.

"I sense you have a phobia of me and my sisters", It crooned devilishly.

"Not 'nymore, Greenie!" Megamind smiled his mischievous smile. The naiad gave him a weird look as he kneeled down on his haunches and still had that over-the-top smile plastered on his face.

Then in less than a second, his hand shot forth like a serpent and snatched a chopstick out of the naiad's hair.

The naiad looked exceedingly offended, and then she attempted at a grasp at Megamind's leather boots.

She succeeded.

Still gripping the chopstick, Megamind jerked his feet loose immediately, and then bopped his heel hard on the naiad's head.

She uttered a pained scream and sunk back underwater. Megamind gave himself a fist pump and then hiccupped.

The blue genius went on to cripple the rest of the sinister maidens. It reminded him of that weird game he had once seen, what was it called?

Oh, yeah, it looked like a warped version of Whack-A-Mole!

Except that the "moles" were deadly. No matter, Megan's advice had worked well on his fear.

Yeah, he was attacking harmless little fuzzy teddy bears in flouncy tutus and darling frilly bows! That seemed mean, but it helped him see the green women in a way that didn't disturb him anymore.

Now, if only he could envision spiders that way…

After all the naiads were creamed, Megamind was just a little sweaty from all the karate-sufficient moves he had made on the naiads. He had come across a particularly tough cookie, one that dodged all his blows and seemed to not feel pain.

That was when he jumped on top of her head altogether to finish the mini-battle. Yep, he had cheated and jumped on the "mole" to get rid of it completely.

After all that, he realized he still had that naiad chopstick in his hand. It had a little green gook on it from poking a naiad's eye with it.

Eww… naiad blood…

He flicked the stuff off. This chopstick was actually quite pretty. He could give it to Roxanne when he found her.

That is, if she was still alive.

Megamind observed the chopstick closely. She would like it, even if she couldn't put it in her hair. It could be more of a trinket. It had tiny little pearls embedded in the smooth mother-of-pearl. There was delicate filigree inside all the pearls, and it seemed to spell out some sort of phrase. Megamind squinted closely at it, but couldn't read it.

He shrugged and pocketed it in his boot for later.

"Yeah! Those naiads totally deserved that! I've wanted to do that forever!" Megan said with pep as she came up behind Megamind. She gave him a playful punch on the arm. Megamind snapped out of his trance and basked in the victory of crippling his fear.

"That was fun!" He exclaimed with the enthusiasm of a child. Then he hiccupped. The two laughed.

"So, now we just keep walking?" Megamind guessed as he turned to look down the tunnel.

"Our best bet", Megan answered. "I can't wait to see Annabelle. She's my best friend. And I really need a cure for these danged hiccups."

"You said it. I hope I don't cough up blood again", Megamind agreed, fingering his neck. He remembered exactly where the blood vessel had burst. Right by his trachea. Luckily, it didn't affect his voice, which stayed as handsome as it always was.

So the unlikely duo continued on. And they both became quite hungry once again.

The only things in sight were a few bugs. And the water that came with an almost fatal case of hiccups.

No matter how hungry Megamind got, he did NOT want to eat a cockroach. He was certain it would taste crunchy and downright vile. Even if survival depended on it, no cockroach was EVER going in his mouth. Ever.

But he hoped they found a way out soon. And something actually edible.

This situation reminded Megamind of the survivor shows that were always on the History channel, or the Discovery channel. He compared himself to Bear Grylls and found two obvious differences.

One: Bear was a human (no duh), and Two: Bear ate scorpions, and dung beetles, maggots and grubs, caterpillars, and…

Megamind shuddered. Spiders. How could he choke that down? Plus, he went into caves as wide as he was, and made it out alive when they flooded. Heck, he could climb Mount Everest with his bare hands and a tank top.

Basically, Megamind was the opposite of Bear Grylls. He would never survive alone in the wild.

He kept walking behind Megan in the cave. They came across a natural stone bridge that went from one end of a cliff to another on one narrow strip. It was about a foot wide.

This was the next thing to tightrope walking, it seemed.

Even though Megamind didn't want to, he peeked over the edge. He was not one to be afraid of heights, but this time, he was.

The farthest down he could see was about a hundred feet. From then on, pitch blackness. He didn't want to think about plummeting to his death.

How deep was it? Megamind kicked a nearby pebble over the small bridge.

He didn't hear a sound except after five seconds. Then he heard a soft splash. Then a few screams.

Those sounded like naiads! Another reason not to plummet to your death.

Megan stepped on the bridge without any worry. In fact, she strutted across it like a supermodel.

"This is Megan, modeling a new fashion just released", she said flamboyantly as she turned around and posed. "It's called… You're Not Going To Fall Off The Bloody Bridge, Megamind!" Megan said, aggravated. Megamind rolled his emerald eyes. He narrowed them at Megan and shifted the little weight he had onto one foot.

"Take baby steps, if you have to. You'll look like a twig with legs. A scaredy-twig with legs", Megan joked.

"Fine", Megamind snapped. He placed a hesitant foot on the bridge. Then he started walking.

"There you go!" Megan encouraged him as if he were a child. Megamind was holding his arms outwards for balance, and he thought it made him look ridiculous.

Then Megamind finally got to Megan. She smirked at him. He threw back a childish pout.

They both continued across the bridge.

And then Megan, in spite of her confidence, her foot slipped.

And then she fell.

Megamind did a double take and flailed for her, slipping off of the bridge as well.

And then only his other hand was caught on the stone. The two were dangling off of the bridge, now not knowing what to do.

"How do we get up?" Megan asked, shaken by her fall. Her grip was as tight on Megamind's hand as when he had saved her from the naiads. Luckily, leather doesn't sweat, because Megamind's hands were drenched beneath the material.

"Just climb up!" Megamind urged. "Step on my head if you need to!"

Megamind wanted to snatch those words right out of the air and stuff them back in his mouth. Because when Megan did as she was told, he was certain there were footprints all over his perfect blue skin.

But at least she had gotten to safety.

When Megan was finally back on the bridge, she was panting from the fear of the naiads waiting below. She swallowed and then hiccupped the saliva back up again.

"Aren't you going to help me up, Megan?" Megamind exploded, kicking his legs impatiently. He was deathly afraid of plunging to the hungry naiads below. He'd probably perish soon as he hit the water if he fell. And all would come to a gruesome end if the water was shallow.

Yipe! He didn't want to think about it! Much less steal a glance over his shoulder and down in the black depths below!

Megan bent down and pushed her fingers underneath Megamind's long gloved ones. She got a firm grip, and then hoisted him back up on the bridge. In was actually quite easy; he couldn't weigh more than seventy pounds. And that was the weight of an eight-year old!

Megamind's legs wobbled slightly when he came in contact with the thin strip of stone. He placed his hand on his heart, right beside the scar slashed in his chest. His heart was beating as fast as a car motor from the dread of falling into the wicked clutches of the naiads.

"Let's get the heck outta here", Megan said, shaking her head for effect. She speedwalked across the incredibly narrow bridge as stably as she could. Megamind did likewise, glad to get out of the danger zone.

They walked on through the cave for several more minutes Megamind marveled at all the intricate formations of the rocks, and the shapes they were in. There was one clearing they came across where there were pillars that meandered around the hollow, kind of like a room in Narcissa's mansion. There was another cavern covered with glowworms, and one with flocks of bats. One had swooped close to Megamind, and Megan laughed when he screamed.

Then…

The tunnel ended. They were at a dead end.

No.

Megamind nearly broke down in tears again. All this way for nothing! He'd never be out of here!

They were trapped. Both of them.

He'd never see Roxanne again. Or Minion. Or Metro City. Ever.

All the feelings pushed at the back of his vivid green eyes again, and they desperately wanted to pour out. It would satisfy him. What else was there to do?

Megan saw the distressed look in Megamind's eyes. He was blinking rapidly, she noticed. His breathing was ragged.

"Megamind…"

"No. No, I can't be stuck down here. There has to be another way to get out, and I'll find it. I have to get out."

Megamind rubbed away the water in his eyes and growled. His continuous hiccups didn't help much with surpressing his tears. All his current problems flashed before his eyes.

All the imminent death.

Roxanne being ripped apart from him, and never being able to see Minion again.

Narcissa was a vile beast. A savage killer.

Megamind kept all the other inappropriate comments about her to himself.

Just as he was about to keel over, Megan gripped him around the shoulders. Megamind struggled.

"Just…just let me…emotionally compromise!" Megamind stammered with a hint of annoyance. Megan kept a somewhat firm grip on him.

"Crying is never the answer, Megamind."

Megamind had nothing to say on that.

"Megamind, look!" Megan said after she had let go of him. He was kneeling, and some tears streaming down his face wordlessly. The only other sound he made was hiccupping.

Megamind turned his blue head to the readhead, and then wiped away the tears. She had found a pile of loose rocks that had been quite overlooked. He felt a tiny little spark of hope blossom in his chest. This could lead to a way out! Why was he crying for nothing? This situation was making him a baby. An emotional frazzle.

He helped Megan move away all the large, rough rocks. Megamind was thankful that he still had leather gloves on to protect his hands, but Megan wasn't so fortunate. Her pale, dainty hands with once perfect fingernails were calloused and dirty. Yet she was still working them away eagerly so she could escape from her wretched confinements.

Just a few more stones, and they might be out! Argh, Megamind couldn't take the suspense!

Another rock came loose. Then another, and another.

Megamind almost let out a jovial cry. He saw a little stream of sunlight peeking through the top of a narrow passageway they had uncovered. It went straight for a little ways, and then curved sharply upwards. It ended vertically, and Megamind couldn't stop staring at the thin strips of sunlight he saw.

Beside him, Megan was speechless as well. Her cobalt eyes were round and shining with hope. She looked into Megamind's, stunned. Exotic green eyes locked firmly with foreign sapphire ones.

Megan reached her hand tentatively upwards, towards the source of the sunlight. Her fingers touched something hard. Something slightly musty, but made of wood. Splintery wood.

She licked her red lips.

"Megamind", she murmured, "we're out of here."

* * *

><p>AN And... THEY ESCAPE! XD I loved the hiccup part! Try imagining Megamind with hiccups. I went into a laughing fit!

*Chuckles*. "Let me emotionally compromise!" LOL.


	13. Chapter 13

Bleu Leather

Chapter 13

If you had asked Megamind what it felt like to finally see the sun, he would've stayed silent. He would've stayed silent, because it was indescribable. So indescribable, he actually blacked out when Megan threw the trapdoor open, and they both clambered out. Megan had caught him abruptly, before he could bruise his head any more on the cobblestone they were now standing on.

Cobblestone?

Megan blinked. Megamind, limp in her hands, was still unconscious, and didn't notice in the slightest that where they were standing, it was as if they had entered a whole other world.

Megan inhaled. The air was cool, and not muggy in the slightest.

Were those chirping birds she heard? She hadn't heard any bird since the day she was first kidnapped.

She smiled. She was outside. She hadn't ventured outside Narcissa's prisons for two years. She dearly missed nature. What could she say? She was a fairy. She adored nature.

Ugh. She felt about to cry. The willow trees; they were never so vibrant and elegant. Flowers never seemed so vivid in color. And the little gazebos, the fountains, the grove ensnared in ivy, it finally gave her a feeling of warmth. She was in a little piece of home.

One tiny little crystal tear dripped onto the cobblestones. She wiped it away as quickly as she could.

Then she angled her head down at the blue alien that had spontaneously passed out minutes ago. Did he really miss sunlight that much? Megan hadn't basked in it since she was ten. Her needs were superior.

Hmph. This situation sure made him weak.

Something in his boot was shining in the sun. What was that? A part of it was sticking out of the top. It must've slipped out a little.

Megan wasn't usually snoopy like this, but she was curious. She bent down and pried the object loose from his boot. It was long and smooth.

It was a chopstick.

It was pretty. Where had he gotten it? Megan rolled it around it her hands. She ran her finger over the mother-of-pearl. Megamind didn't seem like the type to want a chopstick like this. Maybe it was for Roxanne.

_Oh, well, that's actually…sweet of him._

But a single chopstick? Didn't make much sense. Maybe he intended for it to be a little souvenir. They had a lot to explain to his sweetheart once they found her. Megan really wanted to find Roxanne for Megamind. It would make him spazzy with happiness if she was alive.

The disabled fairy took a closer look at the tiny pearls embedded in the chopstick. There were letters in each one. They spelled out some sort of message. Megan squinted.

_**None who dare to meddle will leave unscathed.**_

Why would Megamind want this? That message seemed ominous. Well, the type was incredibly tiny and full of filigree. It was difficult to read.

Wait a minute.

Megan nearly dropped the chopstick. This was a naiad chopstick! How did he EVER get his hands on THIS?

He was…one lucky duck!

When a mortal lays hands on anything belonging to a naiad, they receive a small power. It could be of any sort. Megan didn't know why this was true, but the last time this had happened was to another defiant kidnapee fifty years ago. She had inherited the power to play with time however she wanted.

Megan had known her. She was a loyal Rebel, until she had caused some sort of time paradox, and hadn't been seen since. Megan knew this, because that girl had cast some sort of spell on herself to stay twelve years old forever. Or at least until she could see humans actually invent their own time machine.

Megan wondered what Megamind had inherited.

As she was lost in thought, Megan suddenly saw Megamind shift on the ground. She panicked slightly and quickly placed the chopstick back in his boot, tucking it in just far enough.

And then Megamind's eyes like two round peridots flitted open.

"Oh… what happened?" He muttered, shaking his head.

"Ah! The sun!"

"Megamind, snap out of it", Megan said. "You're not a vampire."

"Yes I am!"

What the…? Did he get knocked it the head and stunned silly or something?

"Ha. No I'm not", He said. Megan rolled her eyes. "Stop acting like a four-year old, and let's find Annabelle", She said, grabbing him by the wrist.

"Where are we, anyway?" Megamind asked vaguely.

Megan was about to ask herself the same thing.

Oh, wait! She remembered Annabelle telling her once about Narcissa's infamous tea gardens. Annabelle had said that they were enormous. This must be it.

"I think we're in Narcissa's backyard", Megan said with a small laugh.

"I'm not surprised", Megamind said, letting go of Megan's hand and crossing his arms. "I still can't believe there's such a thing as a trillioniare…"

"Believe it, Blusie."

Megamind pouted. "Why do people give me all these cutesy nicknames? I have a reputation to keep, you know."

"I know a few other nicknames for ya!" Megan said, ignoring Megamind's comment. "Johnny, Blusie, Meggie, Megs, M, MM, and M&Ms."

"Stop it!" Megamind exclaimed suddenly. He playfully smacked Megan upside the head, but not too hard. She turned around and poked him in his flimsy stomach, sending up a hiccup. Megamind blushed fuchsia.

Megan laughed, and then hiccupped herself. Those bloody hiccups!

"You better not poke me again." Megamind said in an undertone.

"You shouldn't have given me the idea!" Megan taunted. She poked him in the stomach again, this time making Megamind hiccup and gag.

Afterwards, Megamind looked in awe around Narcissa's garden. The foliage was a little sappy for his taste, but beautiful nonetheless. He had never really seen any garden like this. Or any garden at all. It was even more beautiful than the gardens back at the hotel.

The hotel reminded him of Roxanne.

Roxanne! Everything was reminding him of that amazing creature! He couldn't wait to start looking for her. He was starting to get this feeling in his bones—he couldn't quite describe it. It was this kind of tingle whenever he thought of her. And his large brain automatically declined the possibility of Roxanne being dead whenever that came to mind. The images that replaced them were ones of them kissing or embracing. Ones of them being together at last.

It tugged at his heart to see those images. He wanted desperately to see Roxanne; to hold her, to caress her endlessly.

And this time rake through that glorious mop of chocolate hair.

When Megamind became lost in his fantasies like this, it was difficult to get out. His head was a complex thing.

Megamind became so distracted, he didn't know that he had walked right into a small pond Narcissa had built. A pond surrounded by reeds, willow trees, and daffodils. There were numerous water lilies floating on the water, and dragonflies skimming and dipping gracefully on its surface.

The cold water, when it seeped through his boots, woke him up from his trance, Megan giving him a funny look.

"Hey, Capitan Distracto, the stepping stones are this-a-way", Megan said as if Megamind had no common sense. She signaled across the limestone tiles that went all across the pond.

Megamind blushed and trudged out of the muddy water, eyes locked on the ground. He walked across the stepping stones, this time concentrating on where he was going.

* * *

><p>"How exactly do we get in?" Megamind asked, staring up at the ivy-ensnared wall that protected Narcissa's fortress.<p>

"How else? We climb."

"Thank you, Madame Obvious", Megamind muttered. He was feeling kind of moody for some reason. Before, he had been in a little bit of an argument with Megan about who to look for first; Roxanne or Annabelle.

Megamind then learned something new.

Megan could be as stubborn as a boulder. Even more stubborn than Roxanne could be.

Another reason why Megan had gotten her way was because she was just a girl. Little girls always seemed to get their ways.

Boy, if Megan had just heard Megamind's thoughts, she would've choked him until he turned blue in the face and passed out.

This meant, she would choke him forever, because his skin was already blue. Megan was one tough cookie.

"We can climb this! Annabelle's place is just over this wall and through a secret entrance. I'm positive she's not in any prison, because she was toning down the riots for a while", Megan said. "She's gonna have to apologize for that, because NO Rebel is afraid of anything. Ain't that right, spee-ider man?"

Megamind hit the heel of his hand against his head. He really shouldn't have told Megan how he mispronounced things.

"Potato tomato, Megan!"

Megan laughed at him and started to climb the ivy. Megamind observed how she did it so he could copy her. She would first grab a hold on a vine, twist it around her pale hand, and then hoist her foot up until it was nestled on a foothold made of thick vines. Then repeat that same motion over and over.

That looked easy enough. Even if this wall was at least twenty feet high. The ivy looked durable.

Megamind climbed up the plants with no problem. He did it gracefully, in fact. He only weighed seventy pounds.

The ivy actually refreshed him a little. It was covered in dewdrops from the morning, and the leaves collected the water in little pools until they got jostled. Then they dripped down on his face and trickled down his chin. It felt quite good.

He was only a few feet from the top of the wall. What if there wasn't any ivy on the other side? Then what would they do? He'd have to wait and see.

Megamind felt Megan jostle the ivy suddenly and strongly. He panicked and tightened his death grip on the ivy. It had loosened form the wall, and threatened to break off. Megamind's heart was rapidly in his throat, thumping wildly. His sharp intake of breath was so sharp, it made his throat hurt.

Then he hiccupped. Again. His throat stung like a wasp had flown down there.

"Megan! You almost gave me a heart attack", Megamind exploded.

"Soh-ree." Megan's tone was rude.

"Megamind gritted his teeth and moved on. Why was Megan being so snappy all of a sudden? Maybe it was the argument they had had previously. It wasn't THAT big of a deal, was it?

But...hmm… maybe it was. Annabelle was Megan's best friend.

But Megamind loved Roxanne!

Which was more important? He didn't know.

He kept climbing. He was almost at the top of the wall.

Megan's foot slipped on a vine, and she almost fell.

"Careful."

"I'm fine", Megan snarled. She groped around for another foothold.

She slipped on that foothold. And then she was hanging by one ivy vine.

"Megan!"

The ivy vine snapped and she fell.

"NO!"

Megamind watched in horror as she screamed and flailed in the air. Her sapphire eyes were wide, and she was getting closer and closer to the ground.

Ten more feet until all came to a gruesome end.

Megamind reached his hand out in desperation, even though he knew it was fruitless.

No! She was going to die! This was happening so fast!

But why?

Megamind reached his hand out further. All hope was draining fast from him.

He had only just met Megan, and now she was going to die.

"AAA!" She screamed one last time.

Before…

She…

Stopped.

She stopped falling about a foot from the ground. Her face was twisted in a grimace when she braced herself for impact, but it didn't come.

She dared to open her eyes. Her bosom heaved.

And Megamind was equally shocked.

Why…?

What…?

No. This couldn't be. Even after all this sudden plunging into a world of magic, this was impossible.

Megamind had done this. _Megamind had stopped her from falling._

He stole a glance at his hand that was outstretched to Megan. There was a spectral orange light flowing from it, and it cascaded downwards and snaked around Megan's waist.

How was this happening?

Megan angled her head upwards. Her face was zombie-like.

And then she looked pensive. What had caused this spontaneous superpower?

Wait.

Oh my gosh.

This had to be the result of the naiad chopstick he had taken!

"Megamind!" She cried. "You know that chopstick you stole from the naiad?"

"How do you know about that?"

Megan ignored the question. "Whenever a mortal steals a possession of a naiad, they inherit some kind of small power! I think this is it!"

Megamind almost plummeted to the ground himself. As he had said to himself before, it was still taking some getting used to getting forced into this whimsical world of magic.

Anything could be the truth; anything could be a lie.

But Megan wouldn't lie to him!

"Powers?" Megamind repeated incredulously. That word made him feel like Metro Man, except without the super strength and super flight.

But this power was awesome! Whatever it was. It had saved Megan!

"Yes, powers. And judging by how you just saved my butt, it's a pretty useful one. Try pulling me back up!" Megan urged. Maybe his power was some kind of force that could move things anywhere at will.

"How do I pull you back up?"

"Just try!"

Megamind was still shocked by the suddenness of all this, but he tried. He moved his hand up slightly. Megan moved up slowly.

Megamind soon got the hang of this spontaneous power. He clenched his fist slightly, and Megan moved up faster.

Oops. Too fast.

"AAH!" She shrieked, as she was flung up into the air. Thankfully, the orange light was still enveloped around her. She was trying to hold on to it for dear life.

"Just because you have this orange force thingy around me, doesn't mean I'm your KITE!" Megan hollered.

"Sorry!" Megamind yelled back halfheartedly. "I'll put you back down!"

He lowered his hand so it was hanging over the wall. Megan floated down and then her feet touched the ground at last.

"How do I make this light…err…disappear?" Megamind asked Megan.

"Imagine it retracting back into your hand!"

Megamind cocked his eyebrow, but he did it anyway.

It worked, and soon the orange light was gone.

When Megamind had finished climbing over the wall and onto the ground on the other side, he was out of breath. How else would one react if they had found out so suddenly that they had a spectral power?

When it came to Megamind, though, he sometimes went into a panic attack when he was under extreme stress, or when receiving a surprise like a swift punch in the face.

And it was time for that panic attack to come.

After all, Roxanne was going to die most likely, he would never be back home in Metro City, he'd never see Minion, and eventually he'd kill himself from the sadness of it all.

And now he had a superpower?

He couldn't take it anymore!

"Megan! I don't understand, how did the chopstick connect with this? I don't know what do you think? I don't know! Where are we going again? What time is it? Where's Roxanne? We need to find her! No, we need to find Annabelle first! No, Roxanne! We'll find them both! And then—"

"YAHH!" Megan screamed and then knocked Megamind out with one harmless, but firm blow on the head. He immediately fell forward and faceplanted on the grass. Megan grimaced.

This was the first panic attack from Megamind she had ever witnessed! She didn't even think he was the kind to have panic attacks!

But he just did. In front of her.

Crazy. Insane. But true.

Megan had just learned something new: A panicky Megamind is never EVER good to have.

"Oh, well", She muttered to herself. She bent down and rolled Megamind over on his back. Strangely enough, he didn't even have so much as a trickle of blood coming from his nose. A faceplant like that, according to Megan's sources, would most likely make you clinically brain-dead.

But… she _did_ remember Megamind telling her that he had thicker bones than humans. Especially to house his enormous brain capacity, he'd need a skull the thickness of a slab of oak.

Megan giggled to herself. His skull was thick both literally _and_ figuratively. At least sometimes.

* * *

><p>As soon as Megamind had awakened, the two had almost immediately fallen through an unseen passageway in the ground. Megamind hadn't seen it at all, and neither had Megan.<p>

Although, there was probably a purpose behind the odd-looking rocks that had been placed in a square around the portal.

Megamind could remember the warped feeling. He felt, once again, like Alice down the rabbit hole. There had been objects of some sort whizzing past him as they both fell, but he couldn't make out exactly what they were.

But he did get bored.

They just kept…_falling._

Soon, Megamind calmed down and crossed his arms to show that he thought this was ridiculous. Megan mirrored him.

"How long is this hole, anyway?" She asked airily. She examined her fingernails boredly.

"Wouldn't have a clue." Megamind toyed with a stray piece of leather in his glove. In fact, he noticed, most of his clothes were tattered and dirty. And a lot of the spandex stretched across his chest was torn away, revealing his angry, scabby scar.

In fact, that scar hadn't even healed a bit. The blood had clotted, but the tear in his skin hadn't shrunk. Usually, if Megamind received cuts or scrapes, they healed in a matter of hours. For more serious ones, a day or two. If Megamind was bored enough, he could watch a paper cut heal completely in just a few minutes.

This was very peculiar, indeed.

Megamind started to calculate every second that they had been falling.

_Hmm… about five or six minutes since we fell… minus this…carry the five… _

_We've been falling for seven point eight nine seven seven two minutes. _

Megamind would've boasted about this if he could. He could do the most complicated math problems in his head in a few seconds.

After just a little while more, Megan suddenly screamed.

If Megamind were standing on the ground, he would've jumped. Her scream was shrill nd piercing.

"Megamind! Ground dead ahead!"

"Oh my…! Whoa!" Megamind's vivid green eyes widened.

A carpeted floor lay just seconds beneath them.

"Megan!" Megamind practically hollered. "Turn around! Land on the balls of your feet!"

Megan did as she was told.

And… they both hit the ground.

Luckily, it didn't result in certain death. Just probably a torn ligament.

When the duo landed, their legs suddenly bent outwards painfully, straining the muscles in their thighs.

"AAGH!" They moaned simultaneously. Megamind toppled over to the ground rolling around in a ball. IT HURT!

"I'm never going to take advice from you ever again, Megamind!" Megan groaned sarcastically.

"Noted."

Megan rolled her tanzanite eyes.

"I think I tore a muscle!" Megamind said melodramatically. Even though the pain had died down ever so slightly, it was still agonizing.

"Sheesh, you're not gonna die, Blusie!"

"Nicknames…" Megamind muttered.

"Oh, stop it", Megan scolded, slapping him on the arm. "You're lucky to have me around. I know how to kill that pain."

Megan simply grabbed him by a shin, and clenched her fist while she muttered something odd, then let go. Megamind felt no more pain.

He stood up eagerly, and waited for Megan to heal herself before following her cautiously down a long corridor. As they ventured further down it, Megamind felt a little drip of fear trickle into him.

He had seen these corridors before. They were back in the heart of Narcissa's mansion.

Megamind couldn't shake the feeling of the tiny, almost not even there, baby-fine hairs on the back of his neck standing up as if he were being watched. Sometimes it was just out of being paranoid, but sometimes it felt as if they were really being followed.

But each time Megamind turned around, hoping to see somebody, it was just the exotic carpet laying there behind them.

Hmph. He did have to say, though, Megan probably knew this path they were taking like the back of her hand. Megamind couldn't see the front of her face, but it was probably bright and hopeful.

Just like the quiet, nagging thought that told him thoroughly that Roxanne was alive and well. Megamind desperately wanted to believe it, but it could be wrong. But that made him sound like a total pessimist, which he was most definitely not.

After a short while, Megan stopped abruptly at a large oak door. Megamind, who was still trailing her, leaned forward to look at her expression. Just as he'd predicted, her sapphire eyes were sparkling like a real sapphire, round and polished. She also had a slight smile upon her lips, one that would immediately be crushed if her friend were not lying behind these doors.

Just as Megan placed her hand on the copper handle of a door, she took a tentative look at Megamind.

"Umm… you may wanna wait out here until I get this through Annabelle's head", Megan instructed. "She's never seen an alien before. And she gets really weird-acting around new recruits."

Megamind simply nodded.

And then Megan swung the door open.

Megamind stood behind the other door, and for a brief moment, he heard violin music. The most beautiful he had ever heard, in fact. Even though his ears had only glimpsed a snippet of the melody, those few notes flowed into him and spun around in his head. The tune was soulful and gorgeous, piercing and heartbreaking.

Meanwhile, Megan was stunned silent.

Annabelle was in there. And she was staring straight back at Megan, her violet eyes wide.

Then Annabelle screamed with delight.

Megan grimaced, and made a slitting gesture across her throat, signaling to her friend to shut her mouth.

Annabelle stopped squealing, and set her violin down on the floor of her cozy loft where she had been sitting. Hurriedly, the girl rushed down the tightly swirled stairs and rushed over to Megan.

They tackled each other in a vicious embrace.

Megan was astounded. Simply astounded. After a month without her best friend to turn to, here she was, perfectly fine!

"I'm so glad you got out!" Annabelle was almost exploding with excitement. To hold it in, she jumped up and down girlishly, her pearly white hair bouncing cutely.

She calmed down a bit and then made her face serious. "So, what's our mission this time?" She asked in a low voice, as if they were being overheard.

Megan had a faint shine of want in her eyes. "We need to gather everyone else back up. This time, Narcissa's going to get POUNDED!"

Annabelle brightened. "With the progress we've made, we might succeed… Invader Zim." Annabelle was doing everything within her power not to smile.

Megan's body went boneless melodramatically. "I was hoping you had forgotten about that stupid nickname!" She hissed. This time, Annabelle let herself laugh.

"I'm sorry, but you totally look like him!"

"NO I DON'T!"

"Uh-huh!" Annabelle maintained. "See, you even yell like him! And you are a wee bit short for your age, dontcha think?"

Megan grumbled. She never wanted to admit it, but all that was true. Why did she and Annabelle ever watch that cartoon from a human child's bedroom window? Annabelle had immediately decided afterwards that Megan looked like that little green Irken. In the cartoon, he had eyes exactly like Megan's, only red.

"Changing the subject! I found a new recruit."

Annabelle raised her eyebrows. "Who?"

"This time I got a grown-up instead of a kid. That ok?" Megan checked.

"Sure. Along with Kaitoia, we can win more battles between Narcissa and her minions", Annabelle deduced.

"Please don't get all weird and spiritual when he comes in. I know that power of yours."

The comment stung Annabelle like a swarm of bees. Just before Megan had entered her room, she had been thinking about the mysterious blue man her mind had conjured up.

Could it be? It had to!

"Does he have blue skin and the greenest pair of eyes the world has ever seen?" Annabelle guessed.

"…Yes."

Megan slapped her friend clean across the face when a weird look came over it. She knew that look.

Meanwhile, Megamind was still with his back against the oak door. He had heard each word they had both said.

How had that Annabelle known who he was?

"Megamind! Annabelle's ready to see you", Megan called the blue genius over. Annabelle was biting her nails. "What kind of a name is Megamind?"

Slowly, Annabelle saw a hand with the longest fingers peek out from the door. They were clothed in dismal-looking leather. Then Megamind took a tentative step forward. Annabelle saw what was left of his tattered boots.

Then the alien came into full view. Annabelle gave a shaky gasp.

He was…handsome! For an alien. She saw the reason why his name was Megamind. His head was at least three or four inches higher than a human's. That did not deter his good looks.

Annabelle's visions had been very right, as usual. He had oval eyes the color of shimmery emeralds; a color Annabelle had never seen in anyone's eyes before.

And then her eyes were drawn to his waist. It was exactly six inches wide. Whoa, he was basically a walking twig! She wondered how much he weighed.

Nonetheless, he looked strong. Not flimsy, as it might be guessed.

Annabelle still didn't realized she was staring at him openmouthed. Megamind had an uncomfortable look on his face.

Then Annabelle took a few steps backwards. She crashed clumsily against her bedside table, and then…

Megamind heard…music?

_When I was a young boy, I was honest and I had more self control… _

_Kiss me, k-k-kiss me… _

_I'm blue, daba DEE daba die, daba DEE daba die, daba dee daba DIE… _

Megamind could just barely make out the songs. He had heard some of them before, but some were new to him. If he listened to the lyrics of some of them, he could relate to them pretty well.

He found that quite peculiar.

Before he could make a comment, Megan stepped forth and marched over to a dazed Annabelle. Her friend's pupils were dilated, and she looked terribly dizzy.

Despite this, Megan smacked Annabelle. Again, and clean across her face.

"I needed that…" Annabelle mumbled, holding the side of her head.

Megamind just stared.

"Why do you slap everyone?" He asked slowly.

"Muscle spasms", Megan said, rolling her eyes sarcastically. "Excuse Annabelle here. She has this power… I think it'd be best if she explained it to you herself."

"And if we got introduced formally for once", Megamind muttered.

Annabelle swiftly stood up and walked towards the blue genius. Megamind got a better look at the girl, and saw that she was way less human-looking than Megan.

For one, every inch of her body was white. Just like Megamind's skin was blue. Her hair reached halfway down her back, but it didn't actually look like hair. It looked more like…clouds or cotton candy.

Her clothes consisted of a cropped top, skirt, oversized boots, and helmets with two golden wings protruding from the sides. The clothes were turquoise, and the trim was made of leaves of gold that striped across the fabric miscellaneously. The boots and helmet looked the same.

"Sorry about what I was doing before", Annabelle apologized. Her voice resembled a teenage girl's, even though she looked the same age as Megan. "Take a seat."

Annabelle led Megamind to an engraved wood chair, and he sat down. Annabelle sat across from him, and interlaced her fingers.

"So," She began, "What's your reason for being kidnapped? I mean, besides the obvious."

Megamind gave a small laugh. "First of all, my kidnapping is very illegal. I'm a registered citizen of Metrocity."

"Metroci-wha-?"

"I mispronounce things a lot. Once I say them, I can't get that pronunciation out of my head. It's…Metro…City", Megamind informed the girl.

"Oh, good to know." Annabelle seemed comfortable around Megamind already.

"What was happening to you when I walked in? You were all… staring at me, and then…what was with the music?" Megamind was now fascinated by this realm of magic he had been plunged into. He wanted to know more about it.

"It's involuntary", Annabelle said. "It's part of my power very few cloudsprites are blessed with."

"Cloudsprites?"

"A type of magic folk that dwell in the clouds. But I'm not an angel in heaven. Everyone assumes that."

"Interesting", Megamind mused, stroking his goatee.

"And that music comes from my helmet. Like my own personal boombox, except I can't control when it blares out music."

Megamind raised his eyebrows. "Isn't that bad? You ambush Narcissa all the time, I presume."

"It only plays the music when it's touching my head", Said the cloudsprite. "If I even think about the first few lines of a song, it just plays like this:" Annabelle screwed up her face in concentration. Then she turned herself around in her chair to face Megan, who was examining some instruments by Annabelle's bed.

First Megamind heard a rough guitar riff. He liked the song immediately.

Then he heard another guitar playing another riff, and then an electric keyboard.

"Annabelle!" Megan scolded. "Why must you play this song every time you see me?"

Megan facepalmed herself when the lyrics came up.

_I'm a zombie in the moonlight _

_I'm sleeping when it's daylight _

_I really should be alright _

_But I'm feelin' kinda uptight _

Annabelle was laughing until Megan shot her a murderous look. Then she bopped the heel of her hand on her helmet. The music stopped immediately.

"Annabelle. I'm not even going to comment." The redhead went back to examining her friend's instruments.

The cloudsprite turned back to Megamind. He was confused rather than amused.

"What song was that?"

"Crush on You."

Megamind was at once yanked back to memories of kidnapping Roxanne. He had never heard of that song before. If he had, it would've been in his head for the whole kidnapping session. It just drove him wild with annoyance and attraction when she wore off-the-shoulder dresses or miniskirts that form-fitted her perfectly. Back then, he kept telling himself that it just distracted him too much, and that was why he "hated" Roxanne's prettiness. Roxanne always knew he was lying.

Roxanne…

"Anyway," Annabelle continued on, "all cloudsprites are music prodigies. Even in the womb, music stimulates the growth and well-being of an infant. By the time they're old enough to have dexterity—at about two or three years old—they choose an instrument to be forever theirs. One they become attached to."

Megamind was deeply interested. "Do you have yours, or did that Narcissa confiscate it?"

"Thankfully, no", was Annabelle's relieved reply. "If she did, I would die of longing for it. Literally."

Whoa.

"It's a guitar. Artisan crafted, made of cherry wood, and more beautiful than any human could be capable of making. The strings are made of superthin fibers from a unicorn horn."

Megamind widened his peridot eyes. Unicorns existed? Hopefully all the little-girlish depictions of them were wrong. Those cartoons were cheesy.

Annabelle carried on. "I have a variety of different instruments, and I play them all outstandingly", she bragged.

"Let's not get cocky", Megamind chided smugly, even though he himself could get more arrogant.

"My story now. As I said before, my kidnapping is illegal. So is Roxanne's."

Annabelle leaned in. "Who's Roxanne?"

Megamind didn't know what to say. Could she be considered his… girlfriend? He didn't know.

"Well…" He began, looking for the right words. He put on his thinky face, that look of concentration that stayed the same since high school. Lurid green eyes angled up just right, mouth slightly open, and head cocked to the left perfectly. Roxanne had seen it many times, and it sent a rush of adrenaline across her body. That face was so handsome.

"Um…we're a couple…I guess?"

"I guess?" Annabelle repeated. Her tone was slightly sober. She had always been a fan of romance, and she even pretended sometimes that she was related to the goddess Aphrodite. (Because Megamind had asked earlier, about Roman and Greek gods existing, and Annabelle was affirmative.)

Megamind immediately corrected himself. "I mean, well… it's hard to explain, really. She hasn't called me her… boyfriend yet."

Megamind said "boyfriend" in a shaky voice, as if it mortified him to say it. Fuchsia flushed across his cheekbones.

Annabelle noticed. "Don't be embarrassed, Megamind. I once had a… boyfriend, I guess you could call it."

Megamind was shocked. She was only twelve years old! And she had a "boyfriend"?

"I know it sounds wrong, I'm only twelve, but… there's something you should know."

Megamind was attentive.

"I'm not an ordinary cloudsprite. I'm a part of the Belinda Dynasty."

"Dynasty? Does that mean…"

"Yes. I'm royalty. A kidnapped princess, in fact." Annabelle, who had been standing up, fell back into her chair laying the back of her hand over her forehead dramatically.

"That might be way more illegal than my kidnapping…" Megamind trailed off, still dazed that he was in the presence of monarchy.

"Princesses are introduced to their future husbands about four or five years before marriage", Annabelle explained dreamily. "That means we marry at sixteen or seventeen. And I was with Whitney for only… four months I think. Then I got kidnapped." Annabelle's voice saddened.

"I'm… I'm… sorry, Annabelle", Megamind said with sympathy. He started to reach forward to put a consoling hand on the girl's arm, but drew back when he saw something very odd.

Her hair was slowly turning… grey.

"Annabelle?" He started, with a creeped-out look on his face. "Your… your hair?"

"Oh, right", She simply muttered. "Cloudsprites also show emotions through their hair."

"Huh… wha-?"

"You know, like when I'm sad my hair will turn grey like a rain cloud and actually rain. When I'm angry, it'll turn black and resound with lightning and thunder. You can guess the rest."

"Remarkable!" Megamind exclaimed. He truly was extremely impressed with this whimsical world. "What is your hair made of, precisely?"

"Clouds. Just clouds."

"Isn't that sort of impossible?"

"Nope. Not in this world."

Megamind gave a knowing smirk. Then something new occurred to him.

"Can you tell me more about how we're going to wage war against Narcissa?"

Annabelle's gaze fell on Megamind. "Our priority now is gathering up all the Rebels from their prisons. Narcissa put them there when we last started a quite violent riot. The reason I'm not in a prison is because I was a little tamer than usual."

"Annabelle, I must inform you, as founder of the Rebels, we are NEVER tame!" Megan interrupted from her spot lounging inside Annabelle's sky-high loft.

Megamind chose his words for the next sentence. "And… also, I would really like it if we at least tried to find Roxanne. I utterly miss her." Megamind tried not to sound crestfallen, even though he was.

Annabelle angled her head at him with a special look. "Megamind, of COURSE we'll do that. Rebels don't only care about defeating Narcissa the Monster. We help others. WON'T WE, MEGAN?" The cloudsprite yelled at her friend.

"I heard you!"

"Whatever", Annabelle muttered. "Anyway, I think I can help you locate Roxanne. My power has been honing in a little on her."

"What power? The one you mentioned?"

Annabelle nearly rolled her eyes. She had so much to explain!

"All cloudsprites are blessed with a special power, and some other magic paraphernalia. Mine is vastly unique. When my mind senses a new person entering my life, it picks up songs that describe the person, and then I have no choice but to sing them all out. Then I'm left with an enormous puzzle on my mind until the said person shows up. You were very stubborn in particular. Gave me headaches."

Megamind laughed. "Sorry." He was absolutely astounded by this phenomenon. He was taking mental notes of everything he was hearing.

Annabelle and Megamind sat in silence for a little while more before Megan broke the silence.

"Um… Annabelle?"

"Yep?"

Megamind couldn't see Megan's expression, but he was sure it was uncomfortable by the way her voice sounded.

"This might be a little too much info, but… the vast amount of water I drank from the caves has caught up with me."

Annabelle snorted both out of amusement and disgust.

"The facilities are that-a-way, Megan." Annabelle pointed to her left, signaling towards a door in the far side of the room. Megan immediately rushed down the tight spiral of stairs and went in.

"You didn't drink as much as she did, did you?" Annabelle asked Megamind, looking at him sideways.

Megamind didn't want to answer, for fear of his face turning magenta. He hoped Megan would come out of there pretty darn soon.

* * *

><p>AN haha so did you like Annabelle's and Megamind's first encounter? Annabelle is going to play a very important role in this story. And so will Megamind's newfound power. It will also come in handy with seducing Roxanne... if he ever finds her. :(

ON TO THE NEXT CHAPPY! LETS SEE WHAT HAPPENS TO POOR MEGS! -


	14. Chapter 14

Bleu Leather

Chapter 14

"How much longer do we have to wait in your room, Anna?" Megan was bored out of her mind. Even though Annabelle had some dusty old board games, they were dull. And the cloudsprite wouldn't let Megamind or Megan play with most of her instruments.

If Megamind weren't so famished, he would've said that he would die of boredom. And he had something else nagging at him.

His thoughts were now on an endless track about Roxanne. And this… tingly sensation that came across him was coming in stronger bursts, lasting longer and lingering as if to say that Roxanne was practically right next to him. He wished.

Annabelle had said before that Narcissa would most likely drop by her room this evening to feed her dinner. She had said that she would collect as many scraps as she could, but there were no promises.

"If I don't get a shrivel of brisket, I'll just get so starving, I'll chew through the satin pillow on your bed", Megan had said. "And so will Megamind. Who knows? He might even get an inch off of his already anorexic waist."

Megamind didn't want to, but he laughed at that. Annabelle simply rolled her eyes and continued working on composing a song.

And now he was sitting cross-legged on the fancy little bed on Annabelle's loft. Thoughts were the only thing that entertained him.

Visions that just came involuntarily about finally being with Roxanne. And Megamind had no way of explaining it.

Agh! A particularly strong pang of the tingly feeling shot across his being like an electrical shock. They hurt a lot more now; more than the hiccups Annabelle had cured. Megamind had felt electric shocks before, and marveled at how his body withstood it. But if the shocks were any stronger, he'd get fried.

Hmm… he pondered this subconscious feeling. He hoped it wasn't some weird power again. Although, he had put on some pretty interesting light shows a few hours ago. He had figured out that his small power could be streams of light, or resembling fiber optics that looked like an extra set of twisty, snakelike arms. He could even control the color of the light.

But no time to marvel at his… magic hands. Roxanne-related thoughts were far from seizing to overtake his mind. He had never missed anyone so much. He hadn't had a few hours without her at least calling since the day after defeating Titan. So these almost two days without the buxom reporter were starting to obliterate the genius's mind of anything else but her.

Insane? Yes. Obsessive? You bet. But that was just the way this incredible, annoying, yet amazing feeling worked. Love was complicated.

Megamind, through his pondering, felt the tingle start at the tips of his toes. Oh, not again!

It was like a severe case of his circulation being cut off. It spread like wildfire ablaze with worry across his ankles, then his shins, then his thighs. He lost all feeling in his legs, as if he had been struck with a fatal case of hypothermia.

As the feeling crept up his hips, Megamind winced. He was reclining on the bed out of pain.

The excruciating tingle drowned his middle.

He moaned.

Then he heard footsteps winding up the tightly spiraled stairs that led to the loft. They were heavy, so Megamind guessed it was Annabelle, the all powerful healer whom had cured his hiccups that had come back for revenge mere hours ago.

Her angelic face with only a single small scar running between her angular eyebrows appeared. Her intense violet eyes observed Megamind's pained look.

"Ohh, not this again!" Annabelle sighed annoyedly. "You've had three false alarms already! I can't believe there's no cure for this of which I can do."

"No, no, I'm fine", Megamind took his hand off of his stomach and made his palm face the kidnapped princess. Annabelle slitted her amethyst eyes.

"You're obviously not", She decreed. "My diagnosis? You are suffering from an extreme case of I-Miss-My-Dear-Roxanne-itis. We should search for her before Narcissa comes for me, because I can't stand to see you like this." Annabelle's tone went from irked to sympathetic. She put her white, consoling hand atop Megamind's shoulder. He was still wearing the battered, beat-up leather bodysuit, and it showed the persistent scar on his chest.

It pained Megamind to remember the grueling hour ago when the scab had broken and blood had gushed out. Then Annabelle had to resort to the only thing that would work.

Annabelle took a needle and thread and started sewing.

Megamind had already had a splitting headache, so Megan couldn't bring herself to play anesthesiologist on Megamind by knocking him out.

So Megan gagged him to keep from screaming like a girl.

There were no words to describe how much AGONY he was in! He flinched wildly with each pinprick the razor-sharp needle made in his flesh. It reminded him of Narcissa's fingernails.

Except the little needle slid under his skin, and came out on the other side of the incision in a cross-stitch. Megamind almost cried, it hurt so much. It didn't help that he had extremely sensitive skin.

It only took a few minutes to finish the mini-surgery, but it felt like forever. Megan had mopped up the extra blood with a napkin she had found, and then it was O-V-E-R, as Megan had spelled it out for him.

Megamind absently ran his slender hand over his stitches. Who knew a twelve-year-old could do such good surgery? Besides the fact that Megamind felt like it interrupted his once flawless skin.

The blue genius sat up from the bed when the shocking tingly feeling had passed.

"You're right, this is ridiculous", Megamind said, shaking his head. "I need to do something."

He pushed past Annabelle and wound his way down the blue carpeted stairs.

When he reached the ground, he stopped.

His feet felt temporarily rooted to the ground.

He wasn't having that tingly feeling, but something stronger.

A pang of pain. Multiple pangs. They slashed across his middle angrily, with personalities all their own. There were pangs of rage, peppered with explosions of sorrow and lovesickness.

And… Megamind felt another odd sensation.

He felt almost magnetically drawn to this part of the wall near a boudoir ornately carved with designs of water-lilies. As if… almost as if…

Almost as if Roxanne were residing behind it. Megamind knew it sounded preposterous, but this was just the weirdest feeling that had come across him.

Megan took note of the alien's trancelike state. The fairy took a glance at Annabelle, who was hovering by the spiral stairway in the loft. The cloudsprite mirrored Megan's unsure look.

Still unconscious of what was happening, Megamind slowly paced towards the boudoir until he was a respectable distance away from it. His heart, for some reason he could not place, started to thump and pound. The look in his emerald eyes clearly stated that something was inside this cabinet, or even behind it.

"Megamind, you're starting to creep me out. What the _cheese_ are you doing?" Megan suddenly blurted.

Megamind held up a finger and shushed her. Annabelle started to make her way down the stairs to get a closer look at what Megamind was up to.

Hmm… Megamind just had that feeling deep within the very membrane of his being that told him there was something vastly important near this boudoir. What was it? He couldn't stand the suspense!

The polished maple didn't look too heavy, so he pushed the whole piece of furniture to the side.

And then the three of them all inhaled at once.

There was a small, crude little door behind that fancy cabinet!

"Whoa…" Annabelle breathed. "I… I seriously had NO idea that was there Megamind!"

"Hush", Megamind whispered.

Megamind reached a tentative hand out to turn the knob on the door, which was made of shiny polished brass. His ribcage felt about to explode. He _knew_ there was something fatally important behind this door. He just knew it.

Surprisingly, the door was unlocked. Licking his blue lips in anticipation, he slowly swung it open.

It wasn't a storage closet, though the door was small enough to look like one. All Megamind saw was pitch darkness, so he groped around the wall inside the room to find a light switch.

He flipped it on.

And then… he didn't even have the fear to utter even a whimper. He couldn't scream, couldn't make a move, because what he saw left him on the verge of tears, and just plain horrified.

That… that couldn't be. No. It couldn't be!

There was a woman dangling from the low ceiling, her body tightly bound in ropes. There was a dirty cloth tied around her mouth, and her eyes were closed, her face purple.

If Megamind didn't know any better, he'd say it was Roxanne.

The truth hit him hard in the stomach. Roxanne was dead.

Well… she looked pretty lifeless.

Megamind couldn't be too sure.

Megan and Annabelle stood stock still in the doorway, Annabelle's mouth open in a terrified o. She looked about to faint. Megan's already pallid skin resembled Annabelle's.

In a petrified trance, Megamind took a zombie-like step forward to take a closer look at what seemed to be Roxanne. Her short hair was dangling down from her head, revealing her forehead. She was still wearing the same orange blouse and slacks from the day before, only now they were much more raggedy.

Megamind's head was obliterated of all thoughts except for two questions.

Was she alive?

Or was she dead?

There was only one way of knowing. Megamind's limbs were shaky as he approached his darling Roxanne, and saw that her beautiful arms had two scars on each of them, all unstitched and bleeding. This looked like a scene from a horror movie.

Megamind was going to kill Narcissa for this. Look at what she had done to his beloved! It was… it was… Megamind couldn't come up with an offensive enough word.

And then Megamind stopped pacing towards Roxanne. His breath came out in ragged gasps from the pure shock. His nose was almost touching hers.

Megamind didn't know if he was braced for the two things that could happen next.

She was either breathing or dead.

He tentatively placed his lips right on her philtrum, between her nose and her lips.

_Come on, Roxanne… please be alive… don't leave. _

He felt the ginger tiptoe of her breath tickle across his bottom lip.

She was…

She was…

Megamind almost cried out for joy!

"She's alive! Yes, yes, she's alive!" Megamind jumped high into the air. Megan and Annabelle let go of the gigantic breaths they had been holding.

"Holy ZEUS that gave me a HEART ATTACK!" Annabelle commented gravely. "I almost died, you looked so haunted… and just…Megamind, you looked ghastly. Like you were going to die on the spot."

Megamind turned to the cloudsprite with a knowing look in his still troubled eyes. That feeling when he had turned on the light had no words strong enough to describe it. His heart had stopped. His veins had frozen, and he started to shut down. He thought Roxanne was gone forever.

But she had apparently just passed out from hanging upside down for so long. Her face was an alarming shade of purple.

"We…we need to cut her loose. Now", Megamind ordered. "I'll not stand to see her like this."

Megan nodded and reached into her Ugg boot. Her hand came back up with a small, sheathed dagger.

"Use this", she said, handing him the knife. Megamind almost snatched it from her, he was so anxious about Roxanne. Slowly, he pulled in out of its leather casing and started to work away the ropes.

"Careful. We should help you", Annabelle said, jogging over to a bound up Roxanne. She and Megan held her horizontally while Megamind cut off the rope attaching her to the ceiling. Then they lowered her to the ground and cut open the ropes binding her arms and legs together.

If the woman didn't look so fragile and weak, Megamind would've seized her in his arms and cried his eyes out while he gave her a thousand kisses.

When Roxanne was free of the ropes, the purple began to drain from her face, and then revealing her normal skin color. Her face had just a little bit of grime on it, but Megamind could remedy that.

Still disbelieving of what was happening, the alien took Roxanne in his arms and carried her to Annabelle's four-poster bed. He gently laid her body across the bedsheets, making sure her head was cradled comfortably in satin pillows.

Then he observed the wounds she had on her arms. The bleeding had stopped a bit, but Megamind could see that the cuts were deep. He cringed when he saw one that even revealed bone.

_No, no, no. don't get squeamish. I need to help her._

"Annabelle", he murmured. "Stitch up her cuts while she's still unconscious. We need to help her wake up after that."

The princess, whom had been hovering behind him along with Megan, saluted and went to retrieve her little "surgical kit". Megamind sat on the edge of the bed, squeezing his eyes shut to prevent them from crying. "Megan, are there any ice packs around here that you could freeze?" Megamind asked, feeling Roxanne's forehead through his leather gloves. It was feverish.

"Annabelle has unfrozen ones. I can refreeze them", the fairy assured. "But it's only a small power I have; I can't create a blizzard or anything",

"Yes, yes, just hurry!" Megamind urged, a bit annoyed. He couldn't stop fretting over whether Roxanne was okay. Nothing would tear her apart from his side again. The sober look in his vivid green eyes was continuous as he kneeled on the bed at Roxanne's side, caressing her gorgeous face and wiping the dirt away.

"Megamind, I don't know if you would like to stick around when I stitch up the wounds or not," Annabelle said when she returned, "but I can't have you breathing down my neck. It'll break my concentration, and nobody wants that in a surgery."

Megamind nodded stiffly. "Ok, but just… ok." He said in a timid voice. He took a few deep breaths to calm himself from the trauma. Then he turned away as Annabelle pierced Roxanne's skin with her needle and thread. He didn't want to see more of her blood.

Soon, Megan had come back with an ice pack, and Annabelle had finished sewing up Roxanne's wounds. Megamind returned to her side.

There was silence for a few moments as Megamind gazed at the woman he was madly in love with. The two girls watched a respectable distance behind him, unsure what to say or do next. The blue genius looked longingly at Roxanne, hoping that she would awaken soon.

In the meantime, she needed to be examined closer. Was anything else broken, or was she hurt from bruises? Megamind had no way of knowing.

Annabelle slowly crept up behind the grieving alien and rested a hand on his small shoulder.

"So this is Roxanne, is it?"

"Mm hmm", Megamind affirmed solemnly. He traced a finger around the shell of her ear, which still had her unharmed pearl earring in it. He always thought her ears were pretty.

Heck, all of her was pretty.

Annabelle cocked her head. "You really do love her don't you?"

Megamind nodded.

"… We'll give you some time alone. Come on Megan", Annabelle said as she led her reluctant friend back up to the loft.

Megamind let out a small sigh. It did feel good to be alone with Roxanne, even if she was still unconscious and with an ice pack on her forehead. Annabelle had blotted her face, and worked a spell on her that had made her hair look freshly clean, and the rest of her skin superclean and with that healthy natural glow.

Annabelle couldn't do anything about her clothes at the moment.

Megamind didn't care. At least she was breathing, she was alive, and that was all that mattered.

But he still wanted her to wake up. So he did what he was almost certain would work.

"Roxanne…" He whispered gingerly into her ear. "Wake up. Please wake up."

She lay still. Megamind watched her stomach go up and down with her steady breathing.

Megamind softly kissed her ear and then whispered again. "Wake up. Everything's okay."

He almost died of joy when she shifted in her sleep a bit.

"Wake up. Wake up."

This time, when Megamind lifted his head away from her ear, he saw her eyes stir. His heart skipped an excited beat.

And then he heard her voice. Her beautiful, crystal clear voice he had been deprived of for almost two days. She uttered a soft sigh.

Then her eyes fluttered open.

"Roxanne", Megamind mumbled, bringing his face down to her level. "It's me. I'm right here."

The woman's eyes widened to full brightness. It took a while to take in her surroundings before she set her sights on the man in front of her.

And she had never felt such sheer joy in seeing his gorgeous emerald green orbs once again.

"Megamind!" She breathed. She had no strength to thrust herself for the blue alien and kiss him at the moment, though she wished she had. Megamind wished he could do likewise, but she looked too frail to compromise.

"Roxanne you're back! I'm so glad! I missed you so much!" Megamind gushed. Every word he said was absolutely true. He had missed her so bloody much, he had just felt a gaping hole inside him for the past couple days.

He had also said the words a bit loud. Annabelle and Megan rushed over to the balcony on the loft to see what was happening, and they cheered for joy when they saw Roxanne awake, blue eyes staring at them.

"Who… what is… who are those girls?" Roxanne stammered, now very shaken. The readhead had no pupils, or irises! The other girl was completely white, and her hair…

What the…! Annabelle's fluffy white hair was brimming with tiny rainbows!

"Will someone PLEASE tell me what's going on?" Roxanne exclaimed, sitting up suddenly. A jolt of pain shot through her back. She winced.

"Lay down Roxanne, you've been through a lot, I can tell", Megamind chided.

"Megamind, I'm bursting with ecstasy that you're alive, but please answer my question", Roxanne demanded. Megamind closed his hand around hers, as if to tell her to brace herself.

"Roxanne, I know this is very sudden, but please believe me", Megamind began slowly.

Roxanne bobbed her head. "The last thing I remember before having Narcissa rip up my arms and hanging me was her asking me to be her ally!" She exclaimed, still incredulous. Megamind twisted his face in a grimace. How dare she!

"When I flat-out refused, she threatened to kill you, Megamind, and then I passed out from being upside down for hours."

Megamind placed a consoling hand on Roxanne's cheek. "Narcissa told me she was going to kill _you_", Megamind said back. Roxanne's troubled eyes were wide with fear.

"I think she's the one that ought to be killed."

Megamind nodded vigorously. Then he looked to his side. Annabelle and Megan were standing by Roxanne, and Roxanne was boring a hole in both of them.

"Oh, right," Annabelle muttered. "Hello, Miss Ritchi. My name is Annabelle Annmarie Aurora Belinda the 3rd. This is my friend, Megan."

Roxanne's eyes almost crossed at the amount of information she was receiving.

"Bear with us, and you'll be fine."

Megan took a deep breath and removed her turtleneck to reveal her mutilated wings. After another hour of explaining, everyone finally got everything through Roxanne's head.

"Wow," She simply exclaimed. "Just…wow."

Megamind smirked. He had been sitting beside her this whole time. "I had the same reaction. But we all have the same intentions."

"To stop Narcissa!" Annabelle and Megan cheered at once.

"To stop Narcissa!" Megamind and Roxanne repeated. And for the first time that day, Megamind was truly satisfied.

But he needed to do just one more thing.

The blue alien turned to Roxanne.

"Roxanne", He said with a grin, "I just…I just missed you _so much_." He couldn't help but just gush it to her. He didn't care that Megan and Annabelle were watching.

"How do you think I felt?" Roxanne asked. She looked on the verge of tears.

"Exactly like I did. Empty."

Megamind lunged for her and enveloped Roxanne in a lung-crushing hug. She didn't care that she couldn't breathe, because she was returning the exact same hug.

It felt breathtaking to feel his warmth again, to feel…_him_. Even though they hadn't seen each other for two days, it felt like forever.

Megamind's thoughts were focusing on the feel of Roxanne, to embrace her at long last. His eyes started to sting again, and he buried his face in her shoulder, inhaling her scent that he loved.

Before either of them knew it, they both had tears running down their faces.

They were together.

They couldn't be happier.

And then Megamind dared to let his hand creep up her neck. His spiderlike fingers wound themselves into some of her hair. Not enough for him to be ecstatic, but at least they were in her hair.

And it smelled ever so much of cinnamon.

* * *

><p>AN YESS! ROXANNE IS FOUND AT LAST! And that means a lot more fluff to come. In fact, the next chapter will be dedicated to our favorite couple in particular, and how Roxanne is just getting used to this phenomenon. I LUV THE FLUFFY PARTS! :3

And I love this story! Review please!


	15. Chapter 15

Bleu Leather

Chapter 15

It was already getting dark out, Megamind could tell. But it was only five 'o clock, and that didn't make sense.

Who cared? The sky was starry, and Megamind had a decent view of Paris. It was probably going to be the last view of Paris for a while.

That was okay. He had an arm around Roxanne, and they were on the small veranda outside Annabelle's room. Megamind didn't know why Narcissa would put a veranda in a Rebel's room, but it was definitely too high from the streets below to jump down and escape. Oh well.

They had been on the veranda for a while now, but it was starting to get just a little chilly, and Megamind's clothes were still shriveled up. But Annabelle had worked the same spell on him that she did Roxanne, which made him feel fresh out of the shower.

"Megamind, I still can't believe what we've gotten ourselves into", Roxanne murmured, shaking her head.

"I know. You said that four times already", Megamind reminded her.

"Well, admit it. You can't believe it either." Roxanne was right. Megamind's shock from this world of whimsy was still dying down, not to mention the sheer terrific feeling when he figured out that Roxanne was alive and… mostly well. Annabelle had discovered one last scar she had on her stomach. Again, Megan had had to go through the ritual of gagging her so she wouldn't scream and screech while Annabelle preformed another grueling surgery. Megamind couldn't bear to see her in pain that way. It made him cringe.

"I know, I can't believe it. Nobody on Earth would. And I still can't believe… you're here." Megamind's hand tightened round Roxanne's waist possessively. Roxanne smirked.

"Hey, show me again that thing you can do with your hands", Roxanne said.

Megamind outstretched his palm, and a spectral blue light flowed out of it freely. This power was really quite amazing. The light cascaded outwards in braids of sapphire vines, and curled randomly around the two.

Then Megamind, with a sly look on his face, directed one string of light in particular to weave its way around Roxanne and pull her even closer. She gladly followed through and rested her head on Megamind's shoulder.

"The first time you showed me this, Megamind, I nearly… I don't know, it was just so…amazing. The last thing I would expect from you, even after all this, was for you to have… powers."

"I know right?" Megamind returned. Then a thought occurred to him. He thought about the naiad chopstick inside his boot that he hadn't yet told Roxanne about, much less given it to her. He decided now would be a good time.

The light, which still birthed from his hand, retreated back into his palm in a flurry of neon sparks. Then he took one last longing look at Roxanne.

"Roxanne, I have something for you. Come inside" Megamind said directly. He took her peach hand in his and escorted her back through the screen door and into the loft. Annabelle had let the two of them sleep there for the night.

Again, with only one bed. And this time, it was smaller than the one in the hotel. Megamind wondered if he and Roxanne had been declared missing yet. He knew there was nothing he could do about it at the moment. They had a world to save.

And Megamind had a heart to win.

As the two made their ways back into their room, Megamind bent down to reach his boot and draw out the chopstick.

He was interrupted by Annabelle calling them.

"Hey! Megan, and you two lovebirds come here!" She yelled. Megamind scrunched up his face a little in embarrassment. Lovebirds? That was true by a lot, but humiliating to be called that.

Megamind and Roxanne peeked over the balcony of the loft to find Annabelle standing in the middle of the room with Megan right next to her. Even from up high, Megamind could see that Megan was famished. The green turtleneck she wore was significantly baggier, and she was starting to look weak and malnourished. Poor Megan.

"Ok, this might sound out of the blue, but I've noticed that most people here need to get out of their tatter-ish clothes", Annabelle announced. Megamind looked down at himself. The bodysuit was still mutilated as ever, and he was starting to get squirmy about the lack of spandex over his stitched up scar. He tugged the material upwards as if it would fix the problem, but it didn't.

"What's wrong with my clothes?" Megan asked, stretching her hands out to the side indignantly.

Annabelle gave her a look. "Meg, let's face it, you're a fashion disaster. And the little bow clip in your hair makes you look like a little girl. I mean, WHO in their right mind would wear a wool sweatshirt with tan Ugg boots? You need a makeover, sweetie."

Megamind and Roxanne laughed at the ticked off expression on the fairy's face.

"Thanks for the helpful advice, sister."

Megamind and Roxanne laughed even more.

"Anyway", Annabelle continued, waving her hand in the air, "I have a quite useful power that can help all of us with new outfits. I always thought Rebels should have a team outfits."

Megan frowned. "Excuuuse me, Annabelle! I founded this group!"

Annabelle ignored the redhead. "And now I just need to imagine the design of the clothing, and we're good to go."

Annabelle stood there with her eyes closed for a while before pointing to everyone one at a time, crying "Boom! Pow! Zap and, Kapow!" After she pointed to herself, she was immediately clothed in the clothing she had been wearing, but with a different color scheme. Instead of turquoise blended with accents of gold, she was wearing black blended with accents of silver. It looked amazing on her, actually. Not corny or cheesy or…

Megamind felt different. He realized Annabelle must've changed his clothes as well.

His torso felt… cold.

Oh no.

He looked down at himself, but not before Roxanne could take a look at him first.

And her first thought was one word.

_Woah…_

Erm… Megamind was now…_shirtless._

And he…he had… Roxanne always thought he was flat as a board, being only 14.3 inches around but…

He had _abs!_ Roxanne felt her heart pounding viciously. Why couldn't she just stop staring?

Megamind's face went magenta. He, too, was also looking at quite a sight. Roxanne was clothed in a cropped top, similar to Annabelle's. Her top was black and shiny, and the halter curled around her neck perfectly. She was wearing a skirt that was short, short, and had equally short leggings underneath them. Silver boots that looked made of chrome wound up her calves, ending just below the knee in curly filigree.

And the gloves she was wearing drove Megamind wild. Made of black leather, just like his, and studded with a few small rhinestones on the wrist. The gloves enveloped her slender arms and extenuated her elegant fingers. For some reason, it was enchanting.

Then their eyes met. They both had masks on. They, too, were black and looking made of leather. The leather curled in loops and swishes around their eyes, and ended in elegant ringlets on their temples. It brought out the shine in both their glinting orbs.

Oh gosh, Roxanne was glued to Megamind's torso. She couldn't help it. And the clothes he was dressed in made her feel faint.

She now knew that he didn't have to be wearing a shirt to look good in capes. His was long, navy blue, and silky. The shoulder pads didn't have any spikes, but were breathtaking nonetheless. It was fastened in the middle with a clasp made of one emerald cut in the shape of a triangle. The collar reached up to his ears, the edges resembling his mask. The material curled around his neck, and up the nape of his neck in snakelike coils.

And he was wearing tight leather pants and boots with platforms and small barbs on the sides.

His overall look: Dazzlingly amazing.

"You…" Megamind finally managed to choke out, "you look… beautiful, Roxanne." He looked at her shyly. It was chivalrous of him to call her beautiful instead of hot.

"Thank you", she merely replied. The blush was creeping up her face like wildfire.

"What is your PROBLEM, ANNABELLE?" Megan suddenly exploded from beneath. Megamind jumped and peered over the balcony along with Roxanne.

Megan's arms were crossed angrily, and she was tapping her feet. Annabelle was laughing hysterically.

Megan looked absolutely displeased with her outfit. She was wearing a tunic made of unidentifiable fabric the color of a raspberry. It went mid-thigh, and then showed black leggings and simple short cropped boots. The collar of her tunic was kind of triangular and the color of salmon. Her sleeves were the same color, and also made of the weird fabric. It ended with short black gloves.

Ohh, Megamind got it now.

She was dressed like Invader Zim.

He didn't want to, but he started laughing.

"Annabelle, I knew I couldn't trust you with clothes!" Megan yelled. "I just hate, loathe, and despise Invader Zim now."

How could you? It's a great show!" Annabelle protested, still laughing. "I'm so glad I nicknamed you that!"

Megan poked her tongue out at her friend.

"But seriously, it looks good on you! Every outfit I dish out looks good on everyone!"

Annabelle did have a point. The tunic was slightly form-fitting, and the boots and the gloves did look pretty tough.

"Sometimes I don't like you", Megan pouted.

Megamind and Roxanne gave one last laugh before returning to the loft. Then Megamind blushed again.

Then he decided to lose his dorky persona for a while. He was suddenly in a…romantic mood. Maybe because of the new clothes.

"Roxanne", he finally murmured. "I still need to show you what I got for you."

"Mm hmm?"

Megamind hoped the chopstick was still in his boot.

It was. He bent down, pulled it out, and showed it to Roxanne.

"Megamind, where'd you get it?"

"It's a naiad chopstick", Megamind answered. "Annabelle explained about them earlier. I stole this one while I was defeating them all."

Roxanne smirked. "Old habits die hard, huh?"

"You bet", Megamind said with a small laugh. He placed the chopstick in Roxanne's hand. "It's what gave me my power of light. It saved Megan when she was falling from a wall. I bet it has other uses as well."

Roxanne thought for a moment. "Does that… does that mean I'll get powers too?"

"I'm not certain", Megamind answered with a shrug. "You might."

Roxanne was awed, but slightly worried. If it was a noticeable power, and if they ever got out of this mess, would she be normal ever again? She'd have to find out.

The two came apart and Roxanne placed the chopstick on a bedside table. Megamind started removing his boots and gloves so he could be ready for bed soon. It was almost six, and Annabelle had to leave for dinner in about twenty minutes. He hoped she would bring back some decent scraps.

"So do we wait here until Annabelle comes back with some food?" Roxanne asked after a while of silence.

"That's the gist of it, I guess." Megamind shrugged.

And suddenly he just could not stop looking at Roxanne. All the feelings for her went through him like a slideshow.

And he remembered how much he missed her.

Oh, he was definitely in love with her_ now_.

As if on cue, violin music exploded from below the loft. Megamind ran over to the railing to take a look at Annabelle, who was sitting on the edge of her bed, ardently playing a violin. It was a beautiful, complex melody, and it was actually very…

Romantic.

Annabelle briefly looked up at Megamind and stopped playing.

"Oh, is it ok if I play for a bit? I always play violin in the evening."

"It's perfect", Megamind assured her with sly smile in Roxanne's direction.

When Megamind retreated back in the loft, Annabelle continued playing with a smug look on her face. For some reason, it was always satisfying for her to stir up romance for others. With the song she was playing—beyond the level of a virtuoso—they would be lovestruck in no time.

At that moment, Megan passed by Annabelle, still in her Invader Zim getup. After a long while of consideration, she had said the costume was "decent". It _did_ look good on her.

Megan gave Annabelle a weird look.

"Annabelle, I find it ironic how you are playing incredibly corny music while those two lovey-doveys are up there. _Alone._ Are you up to something?"

Annabelle cocked her head towards her friend, bow still flying across the violin. "I have my reasons. I still think I'm related to Aphrodite _some_where down the line. But it's a true fact that she gave me this violin."

Megan rolled her eyes. "Anna…! You and your romantic cheese…" And she walked off. Annabelle gave a dreamy sigh and continued to fervently play the violin, the music getting more and more alluring.

Meanwhile, in the loft, Megamind stood facing Roxanne, a few feet apart from her.

It was time to work his…_magic._

Slowly outstretching his arms, his palms faced outwards towards her. Then they started to glow red against his blue skin.

A pair of snakelike strands of red light wove outwards from his hands. They slithered slowly in the direction of Roxanne.

Then they coiled themselves around her torso and her waist delicately. Then Megamind lifted her off the ground a few inches. With a waggle of his fingers, he made Roxanne gently drift towards him.

Then he set her down when she was directly in front of him. The arms of light retracted back into his palms, and he tenderly slipped his arms around Roxanne's waist and back. He rested his big blue forehead against hers and closed his eyes in satisfaction.

Roxanne encircled her arms around Megamind in the same way. She absorbed the feeling of him like a sponge. She missed him _so much._ And now they were finally embracing again for the second time in a day.

Mmm… there were so many things she missed about him. Even after all he'd been through, he still had that tantalizing fresh breath that whispered gingerly across her face and tiptoed transversely on her smooth peach skin.

Roxanne buried her face in Megamind's shoulder. As always, he was comfortingly warm. And he even still had his enticing, intoxicating alien musk that was completely unique. It was unlike anything else, and poured out a source of comfort for Roxanne.

And it also felt good to be hugging his bare skin. It was just… _so soft. _Except for that nasty gash on the right side of his chest, his blue skin was a creamlike texture.

Roxanne suddenly felt self-conscious about her arms. After all, they had two stitched up scars of each of them, and there was one on her stomach.

_Sheesh, I look like Frankenstein…_

Megamind took no note of Roxanne's scars, however, and instead focused on holding her, and that perfectly-fitting music Annabelle was still playing. For some reason, Megamind felt more and more in love the stronger the music got. It was starting to feel like he had just swallowed a thousand fuzzy caterpillars.

_Oh, that's right. Aphrodite gave that violin…to her… _

Megamind felt like his chest would explode. He couldn't even think straight, that was how engrossed in Roxanne he had become. He opened his lurid green eyes and looked into Roxanne's. He had never looked this close into those orbs before. They weren't just a gorgeous shade of sky blue, though. He could faintly see little rivers of purple and tiny cracks of navy.

Megamind wanted to kiss her _ever_ so much…

Oh, but not quite yet.

He moved his forehead away from Roxanne's, and then placed his right cheek against her right cheek so his mouth was near her ear. His face got warm at the thought of what he was going to ask her.

Well, it would be the prudent thing to do. After all, Annabelle was playing a passionate ballad.

"Roxanne", he whispered tenderly into her ear, "dance with me."

"There's nothing I would love more", Roxanne purred.

Megamind honestly couldn't help himself. He had to kiss her _some_where. So he settled for her ear. He pecked it right in the middle of the valleys of skin.

Soon, they were both gliding across the wooden floor cradled in each other's arms. They lost all sense of what was happening, and became lost in each other.

Then Roxanne lifted her head from Megamind's chest and looked him in the eyes. The eyes that were vibrant and lush with green, and had teeny tiny streaks of gold like forked lightning slicing through the lurid irises. They were absolutely _magnetizing._

"Megamind, I heard you once mention some reasons why you took me to Paris. What was—"

"—the last one?" Megamind finished for her. "I saved that one for just the right moment. And even though it might be blatant, I'll tell you anyway." Megamind's tone was beseeching.

He turned her in his arms for a moment, and then slowly, romantically dipped her low to the ground in one flowing motion. He dipped her until her back was rested on Megamind's kneeling knee, and his arms holding her firmly against his chest. He narrowed his eyes beseechingly.

Roxanne would remember the next words he drawled out for the rest of her life.

"Since we're still in Paris, I'll say it the way it was intended to be said. And here it goes." Megamind breathed out.

"Roxanne, mois chérie, I love you."

There was silence for a moment. Even Annabelle stopped playing her violin in the middle of a fret. Roxanne stared into Megamind's soul with her eyes like glistening crystals.

Megamind immediately started worrying inwardly. What if he timed this wrong? What if she didn't return the feeling?

Roxanne smiled a sincere, satisfied smile. She blinked her eyes tipped with thick lashes, and stared at him even more.

Megamind stood Roxanne up on her feet.

"I love you, I love you, I love you, with all my heart", Megamind spilled everything he was feeling for her. His eyes looked more emotional and adoring than ever. His blue lips were slightly parted.

Roxanne encircled her hand around his slender waist tighter.

"I love you, too, Megamind."

As soon as the words fell out of her mouth, Megamind looked more enamored than ever.

And then Roxanne had to tighten her grip on him, because she felt his legs start to give out from ecstasy. Accidentally, the momentum sent Roxanne stumbling backwards a few paces. Luckily, the small bed was there to catch her.

Megamind lay upon her for a seldom moment, looking into his darling's eyes with want.

One thing led to another, and then he was tracing his hand gently across her face, memorizing every feature. He had missed her so much, and now she was in his arms willingly. His long, spiderlike fingers explored every inch of her beautiful face, sending an enthralled tingle down Roxanne's spine.

And then… a look of curiosity washed over her eyes.

She tentatively placed her hand upon Megamind's warm chest. She, for some reason, had never felt his heart beating.

And neither had he.

So they both felt each other's hearts, frozen in the moment that would be remembered forever. This one moment they had to themselves. Roxanne was intrigued by how fast his heart was beating; a relaxing constant pound that only beat for her.

And Megamind was amazed at the delicateness of her heart that also pulsed this way only for him. Simply amazed by Roxanne.

Roxanne, his darling.

"Megamind…" Roxanne said in a daze. "Your heart's going awfully fast. Are you nervous?" Roxanne's tone was smug.

"Never," He answered confidently.

"You temptress."

Megamind slowly moved his face closer to Roxanne's.

And then he captured her lips within his.

Megamind instantly felt a rush of adrenaline course through his veins. All his synapses fired at once. He was kissing Roxanne again, and it felt _blissful._ Even better than the last one.

The reason was because he was holding her tighter than ever, and this time he would _for sure_ rake through her russet of chocolate hair.

So he did, without hesitation.

First his long, slender hand was gripping the nape of her neck.

Then his fingers crept into the forest of luminous brown locks.

Before he knew it, he was finally ruffling her hair freely, and it was wonderful. He smoothed it down and brushed through it in every way possible. He was glad he wasn't standing, or he would've toppled over in no time flat.

Roxanne's lips felt so good and her hair the same. Megamind vowed to himself that it would never cease to amaze him how they kissed.

So he tried something new with her lips. As they kissed, he found a tiny little corner of her mouth; the spot where the lip and the skin met. He tried that spot.

A pleasant tingle shot throughout his body. That spot felt so good.

"Hmmm…" He hummed.

His kiss became hungrier; more ardent.

And then a strange thing happened. He wasn't controlling the light from his hands, but there were shiny streams of radiance emanating from both his palms. The reddish light snaked itself around the two, pressing them even closer, making them kiss deeper.

"Megamind…what…did you…do…" Roxanne tried to ask him between bursts of kisses. She was too overcome with amazement to have any expression in her voice but lovestruckness.

"I…don't know…how the light…did…that…" Megamind answered slowly between prodding her lips with his.

"But…it feels…so…good…"

Roxanne wanted to agree with him, but forgot what she was going to say when he suddenly enveloped his cape around her. Roxanne was now encased by leather, fabric, and the spectral light force flowing from Megamind's hands.

"Roxanne…mmm…" Megamind uttered her beautiful name numerous times.

"Megamind…" Roxanne drawled back in the same fashion. He pressed his lips into hers harder, and then pulled back a bit. Then he repeated.

What a lip-lock they were in!

"Ohh… Roxanne, dear…I love you…so…m—"

Megamind was interrupted of his slow little drawl when Roxanne's hand crept under his cape and her fingers skittered up his back.

That was a mistake.

Megamind suddenly shuddered at the tingly feeling that buzzed around his body without warning. His back was sensitive. He couldn't help it, really.

The shudder drove his jaw to bite down on Roxanne's lip, but thankfully it was only a soft nibble. Roxanne moaned and bit his lip in return. Megamind smiled and purred attractively, now cradling her head and her hair safely in his cerulean hands and furthermore tangling his lips with hers.

Back at the bottom of the loft, Annabelle was satisfied. What else could she be? She could _hear_ them kissing from down here, for Zeus's sake.

Megan came out from the bathroom where she had been removing her costume. Now she was wearing a nightgown that Annabelle had given her on one condition: if she wore the Invader Zim costume the rest of the time. If she didn't, Annabelle would tell Aidan that Megan had a full-blown crush on him.

Megan took the deal without hesitation when she heard the consequence.

The disabled fairy sat on the edge of Annabelle's bed and sighed boredly. She was starving. Well, it was almost six 'o clock. Narcissa would be here in ten minutes.

"Annabelle, thankfully you have stopped playing corny music on your violin", Megan groaned with a roll of her sapphire eyes. Annabelle swiveled her body to face behind her.

"It was not corny!" She protested. "I must say, it had quite an effect."

"What?"

"Oh! Do my ears deceive me, or do I hear a specific little twosome possibly, I don't know, in a full-power lip-lock?"

Megan's lip curled up, and she cocked her head to listen. After a few seconds, she turned to the cloudsprite princess and gave her a horrified look.

"Annabelle!" She exclaimed disgustedly. "You're… you're... you're just plain SICK!"

Annabelle ignored this comment.

"You're just jealous because you want to do the same thing with Aaaaidaaaannn", she taunted in an annoying singsong voice. Megan's eyes nearly ruptured, and her jaw nearly cracked.

"Skin of a lustrous pearl…" Megan began in a calm voice, "Fist of IRON!" The fairy snarled and held up her fist to Annabelle's face. Annabelle simply smirked.

* * *

><p>And we end on an angry Megan! haha I loved doing this chapter, I love fluff :3 When Megamind told Roxanne he loved her, I was about to make him say "Code: I Love You", but for some reason I didn't. : You probably would've liked that better, wouldn't you? Oh well.

I'll post the next chapter when I get my Wi-Fi back. I'm posting from a resturant right now. -_-


	16. Chapter 16

Bleu Leather

Chapter 16

_Dong…Dong…Dong…Dong…Dong…Dong… _

The noise from Annabelle's grandfather clock jolted Megamind out of the make-out session with Roxanne. That was unpleasant (The chiming, not the kissing).

Megamind instantly panicked as he first gathered what was going to happen.

Let's see, what happens at six 'o clock?

Oh yeah… Narcissa…

NARCISSA!

Roxanne seemed to remember after a few seconds as well. She sat up from the bed as she did, and gasped.

"Guys! GUYS! You have to hide NOW!" Annabelle yelled just as Megamind heard a rush of air pulse through her room.

Where could they hide? Megamind's brain was too befuddled to find a hiding spot. So he went with the first thing that came to mind as a purple light flashed through the room.

"Roxanne, get under here!"

Megamind grabbed her hand and dove under the bed.

It was kind of icky under there. Not only were their hearts thumping like crazy out of shock, and because of kissing, but there was an occasional cobweb and a whole lot of dust under there. Megamind had to pinch his nose shut to keep from going into a fit of sneezing. He was allergic to dust.

Then, as he placed an arm protectively around Roxanne, he heard Narcissa's vile, sultry voice once again.

"Annabelle Annmarie Aurora Belinda", Narcissa drawled slowly. Megamind was imagining her in another crazy costume, no doubt. He listened quietly.

"I'm ready for supper…m-… milady", Annabelle stammered as if it pained her to say it.

"G—" Narcissa stopped short of saying something when she realized suddenly that Annabelle had vastly different clothes on than before. How could she not have noticed immediately? What was she up to?

Annabelle tried not to cringe when Narcissa moved her head in, her cold nose almost touching her pale white one. The woman's black beady eyes were giving Annabelle a cold, hard glare.

"What are you up to Annabelle?" Narcissa crooned. "More mischief?"

Annabelle faked a look of shock. "Certainly not, milady." Ick. Why did she have to call Narcissa that? why wasn't she being her normal, Rebel self?

Narcissa sucked her teeth, and then stood up straighter. She was quiet for a moment before fixing Annabelle with another stare.

"You are hiding something," She simply accused. Annabelle feigned another look of upset.

"I said it before, and I'll say it again: I don't know what you're talking about."

Narcissa was severely disbelieving. Swishing her cloak the color of a waterfall, she swiftly made her way upstairs to the loft where Megamind and Roxanne were hiding from her.

Annabelle's purple blood cells froze. Would she find the blue alien?

Megamind heard footsteps approaching. Only one pair of feet made that ominous noise of a clonking mahogany heel of a laced boot.

Narcissa was coming.

Megamind had to swallow several times to keep himself from going into a panic attack. He couldn't get a panic attack in front of Roxanne. He was supposed to brave, to be brave for once. Narcissa was a clever villain, she was. Intimidating. Yet with a strange sense of seductiveness.

"Megamind", Roxanne whispered almost inaudibly. "What do we do? What if she looks under the bed?"

Megamind sifted through plans in his head like grains of sand through his fingers.

Then something sparked him.

Would it work? He'd have to find out.

He formed a braid of black light from his hands, and directed it to stick to the bottom of the mattress. When it touched the mattress, Megamind closed his hand around the light. It was strangely solid-ish, like Jell-O.

He gave the light a small tug. It stayed stuck to the mattress. A harder pull and it still stayed.

One thing led to another, and then Megamind had interwoven a spiderweb of black light strands that pinned him and Roxanne to the mattress facedown. Megamind was clutching Roxanne around her middle protectively so Narcissa wouldn't so much as touch her with one of her thorny nails.

Megamind could hear Narcissa getting closer. He gripped Roxanne even tighter.

Then he saw a pale, slender hand reach under the bed.

His heart pounded faster and faster. It was hard to keep his breath quiet when he needed so much oxygen.

Narcissa looked under the bed, but failed to notice Megamind and Roxanne just above her head.

"I was wrong", Narcissa muttered as she stood swiftly back up, flicking her cloak in the process. Megamind breathed a silent sigh of relief. It rustled Roxanne's hair lightly.

Now that they were basically safe, Megamind let himself breathe in the scent of her cinnamon locks.

"Come along, cloudsprite scum", Narcissa snarled, grabbing Annabelle's tiny hand and nearly crushing it. Annabelle dared not wince. She only stiffened her jaw and said, "Yes, milady."

And then Megamind finally heard the large oak double doors slam closed. He groaned in relief, this time louder, and undid the spiderweb of back light. He landed on top of Roxanne in a heap, and he laughed nervously at the awkward position.

Later, he and Roxanne were down from the loft just as Megan crawled out of her impossibly dusty hiding place, sneezing up a storm. She had taken cover under Annabelle's own bed, which was even dustier than the one in the loft.

"Boy, I am SO allergic to dust…" Megan moaned congested, with another sneeze. As if on cue, Megamind sneezed as well. He shook his head and made a frustrated sound.

"So when do you think Annabelle will return?" Megamind asked. He tugged absently on a corner of his curly black mask.

Megan seated herself on Annabelle's satin turquoise bedspread. Her backside accidentally landed on a notepad covered with minuscule music notes in black pen, so Megan stood back up and tossed it aside.

"An hour or so", Megan shrugged as if she couldn't care less.

Oh, but she did care. As soon as the words flew out of her mouth, her scrawny stomach rumbled. She was famished! She was so malnourished, her pelvis was literally jutting out, making her waist skinnier than Megamind's! (And that was saying a lot, since Megamind's waist had a circumference of 14.3 inches.)

"God, I'm starving…"

Megamind and Roxanne realized they were starving as well, but not severely like poor little Megan.

A rather important question struck Roxanne's mind suddenly.

"Megan", she started, "Can you make it clearer what exactly is our priority tomorrow? I've finally had a chance to absorb all this magical-fairy stuff."

Megan's eyes lit up like two blue little Christmas lights, round and oval. "Oh, right, of course. I wasn't terribly clear on that matter…"

"That's right, you weren't", Megamind put in, but not rudely. "You just needed to show Roxanne the big picture of this situation in one short explanation so she wouldn't have a muddle in her human mind. Roxanne has a hard time accepting things she doesn't believe, and I should know." Megamind gave Roxanne a look that signified it was an inside joke.

"Stop it", She muttered, slapping him on his skinny arm slightly, as to not bruise that beautiful sky blue skin. "I've gathered the basics. Narcissa has this underground wonderland that goes on for miles, am I right?"

Megan nodded.

"And she's captured magical creatures for… _centuries._" Roxanne exclaimed, amazed. She must be immortal; a magical creature herself.

"This is our last chance to undermine her plot", Megan warned the two. "And now that we have you on our side, we should be able to succeed. You are the hero of your city after all, Megamind."

"Yes, I am."

"Anyway," Megan continued. "Narcissa plans to put her plan in action in two weeks at most."

"By then, mine and Megamind's faces will be on milk cartons", Roxanne muttered. "But not that I don't want to help save the world as we know it!" She quickly added.

"Stop interrupting me!"

"Sorry", Megamind and Roxanne said simultaneously.

Megan smirked and then went on. "I only know of one thing that's another huge priority at the moment. I'll have to ask Eboni if she ever gets out of her prison.

"But there are two things we need to stop Narcissa, and one thing we need to keep away from her."

"And what might that be?" Megamind inquired.

"The one thing I remember is the Voodoo Doctresses' Staff. It's said to contain a power of immeasurable fear to your opponent. That means it holds Narcissa's one and only fear, only I wish I knew exactly what it was."

Roxanne raised a thin eyebrow. "How do we get it?"

"See that's the tricky part", Megan said, half-shrugging. "The Voodoo lady is more stubborn than a rock. To get the Staff from her, she won't settle for anything less than the deal she lays down."

Megamind smirked. "Kinda like someone I know, huh?" He hinted, nudging Roxanne.

Roxanne, with a roll of her eyes, and nothing else to say, poked her tongue out at him.

Megan sighed. "Anyway, again, that brings us to the case of making a whole truckload of sacrifices. Roxanne, you swore to do that when we slap-swore earlier today, and don't you forget that."

Roxanne shook her head and held her hands up innocently.

"What do you think the Voodoo lady will ask of us?" Megamind wondered out loud. Megan shrugged considerably more exaggerated than the last.

"I don't know, But it'll be a hard journey to get there", Megan warned. "I think we have to go through a haunted labyrinth or something before we get to the Voodoo chamber where the Doctress resides. And Eboni should be hidden amongst all her spiritual and superstitious stuff. Most likely, she will be encased in stone and surrounded by crucifixes and candles." Megan shuddered for Eboni.

Megamind just looked a bit confused. "How are crucifixes bad?" He asked Megan.

"Eboni is a vampire."

Both Roxanne's and Megamind's eyes widened to full exposure of the eyeballs. Megamind wondered if all those stereotypical vampires in books and movies connected with Eboni.

"When should we leave to find her?" Roxanne questioned. "And how do we get to Narcissa's underground museum of magic without her catching us and chopping our heads off to boil and strain for her dinner?"

Megan laughed momentarily and then became serious once more. "Taking risks. Rebelhood is all about living dangerously, and rebelling against the person we despise most for scarring us. Literally and figuratively."

"Talk about it…" Roxanne muttered, observing the scars on her arms with disgust. Then she turned to give a half-amused half-annoyed look at Megamind.

"Megamind, how come you even wear your _scars_ like a beast?"

Megamind didn't get that expression, and he took it literally. A look of offense came over his eyes.

"Megamind, figure of speech", Roxanne quickly amended. "In this case, 'beast' means 'an awesome, handsome individual', like you." And with that, she gave him a sweet kiss on the cheek. Megamind swallowed numerous times.

Megan rolled her eyes. "If Eboni _is_ turned to stone, it's best that we agree as much as we can with the Voodoo Lady's deal. When she seals the negotiation, Eboni's prison will burst, and she'll be free. But we have to do it carefully, because Narcissa visits the Voodoo Lady often. I think they're in league, but we really have no other choice. We need Eboni. Every Rebel has valuable pieces of information that we can't afford to lose."

"Does that include us?" Megamind asked, stroking his goatee in thought. "I only just joined you guys yesterday. Roxanne joined _today._ What do you think we have?"

"More than you think", Megan informed the ex-villain. "You know how much of a monster Narcissa is. And you figured out her plan. There must be _some_thing you both have gathered."

"I know that Narcissa is a stinking rich, egotistical, bratty, self-absorbed slimeball that dresses her poofy little Siamese cat in ridiculous hats and costumes for seemingly no reason."

Megamind and Megan stared at Roxanne. Her outburst was quit unexpected, but she did that when she was angry. Roxanne never kept her feelings under wraps, especially her temper. She threw Metro Man's guitars and stuff over his head when he wouldn't help her and Megamind defeat Titan, for Pete's sake.

Megamind regained his voice. "I was just going to say the same", He agreed smugly, even though that sentence was much too long for him to say in one breath. Roxanne's miffed pout softened a bit.

Megan looked proud. "That Narcissa insult just came in second place to Annabelle's."

Roxanne smirked. "And what was that?"

"Even though I haven't seen my mom in more than two years, I still have to follow the "no vulgar language rule"."

Roxanne and Megamind laughed.

* * *

><p>As soon as Megan Roxanne and Megamind heard that familiar popping sound, they ducked for cover in two seconds. Along the way, something had caught on the grey cloth that wrapped around Megamind's slim waist. The grey cloth that served as a belt was now mangled, and it also showed even more of his blue skin, making him blush, and in front of Roxanne!<p>

But there was no time to dwell on that, he had to dwell on being as silent as an empty casket. What would Narcissa do to all of them if she found out the Rebels had reunited, _and_ had new recruits? Something worse than chopping off their heads and boiling them and straining them for dinner, _that_ was for sure.

Megamind was once again clutching Roxanne tightly around her middle in the midst of a spiderweb of black ribbons of light while they were pinned against the bottom of Annabelle's mattress. Megan was right, it _was_ scary dusty under there. Megamind had to constantly breathe in Roxanne's cinnamon hair to keep himself from instead breathing in dust particles. Not that he didn't want to have his face buried in those locks. It was the softest thing in the world.

He heard Narcissa with keen ears in case she let any valuable information accidentally slip. He couldn't let his guard down for even a second dealing with a problem this big. And after what Megan had told them, he was even more determined to find a particularly weak spot in Narcissa twisted plot, and attack it. There always had to be a weak spot in even the most complex, tightly interwoven and unmistakable evil plan.

But back when Megamind was so-called "evil", his plans were only complex when it came to the contraption used in the plan, not the plan itself. The plan itself was terribly cliché.

Always the same._ Kidnap Miss Ritchi as bait, lure Metro man in, try to defeat him with new invention, fail, go to prison._ Then the cycle went on and on and on for about twenty years. Only, Megamind had only kidnapped Roxanne for twelve years. Before that, it was just a tween Megamind and thirteen-year-old Metro Dude—as people referred to him in the past—battling each other pointlessly.

Megamind's brain had sparked immediately when he was aged at about twenty. The first report Roxanne had ever broadcast left him glued to the screen. After her reports finished, however, the other news just seemed boring and oblivious.

And he also held an embarrassing secret. Megamind had recorded every single one of her reports that she had ever done just so he could watch _her._ What a crush he had had on her!

Later, Megamind had figured out that Roxanne could be perfect bait for Metro Man, because the tabloids were ranting and raving about their so-called "romance."

And Megamind had been screaming with fits of jealousy.

Then his plans became more interesting. He looked forward to kidnapping Roxanne all the time, and even flirted with her slightly. Only slightly. He didn't want to seem "un-evil" because of a simple reporter. Nobody in Metro City ever gave a second thought about whether Megamind, Master of all Villainy, had any actual feelings.

And to think, Roxanne hated almost all his guts just a mere month or so ago. Things happened so quickly. Megamind realized he never had a black heart, and that villainy was what he was forced to do when he was a helpless little kindergartener. Metro Man, the hero because he had powers, and Megamind the villain because he was a poor little rejected child with no other path to take.

So in a nutshell, this was all Metro Man's fault for making Megamind go on rampages of evil all over the city. Of course, if all that had never happened, Roxanne and Megamind might've never crossed paths. That was one of the upsides to Metro Man's role he felt he had to play.

And Megamind's duty as a current hero might've never happened either. And so forth, he wouldn't be listening sharply at Narcissa's speaking to dig deep and find a weak spot in her plan, and at the same time, be a possible boyfriend to Roxanne.

Boyfriend. The word brought a happy, nervous, scared, yet ecstatic feeling to Megamind.

"…You've had dinner, now wallow in your room, "Annabelle the Great". No more monkey business. You've found out enough of my plan already. If you so much as say one word of protest…

"I…will…_kill you._" Narcissa's icy words were like bullets, daggers, and cannonballs all being hurled at Megamind's heart. Never, _never_ had he heard anyone spit that out to a child with such inhospitable, ruthless, cruel, and callous harshness. He felt tempted to reach his hand out and thrust red, angry light from his hand and strangle the monster of a trillioniare until she choked to death. He wanted to do many other horrible things to her, horrible things he couldn't even name.

But he could only wish. Heroes don't kill unless it's absolutely necessary to be carried out. Even as a villain, Megamind had no intentions of such gruesome things.

"Y-yes… milady", Annabelle replied reluctantly. There was an angry fire inside her already full stomach that burned in there only for Narcissa. Outside, Annabelle had to sometimes seem like a meek little kidnapped princess incapable of being a rebellious, trash-talking baddie. If Annabelle got just ravenous enough, people had to watch what came out of her mouth.

Megamind waited a few seconds after Narcissa stomped out the double oak doors with a good slam and the clicks of her locking it up tightly. Apparently, Megamind, thought, she had forgotten to lock the doors earlier that day when Megan had found the cloudsprite. Why didn't Annabelle just escape like a normal Rebel would've? That was such a golden opportunity!

No matter at the moment. Megamind untangled himself and Roxanne from the luminous strands of black light. The snakelike ropes retracted back into his palms, and they both crawled out from Annabelle's bed, a light coating of dust encasing them.

Megamind looked at Annabelle annoyedly, and then sneezed. "Have you ever cleaned the underneath of your bed even once, Annabelle?" The blue alien sniffled. "I'm—ACHOO!—SEVERELY allergic to dust!"

Annabelle, who had been leaning against the mattress, gave a rueful smile. "Sorry", she apologized, shrugging her little white shoulders. "Nothing ever gets put away under there. I can't stand to see my wittle instwuments all dusty and doity." Annabelle baby-talked as if her instruments were adorable toddlers. Megamind grimaced slightly, but no enough for her to notice. How could anyone be that enamored with music? It made no sense, though Megamind was a die-hard fan of AC/DC.

After rubbing his nose a bit more, Megamind and Roxanne stood up.

"Did you get any good scraps?" Megamind asked impatiently. "I'm going to starve, and I'll look like a toothpick cut in half."

"Cut in quarters", Roxanne corrected. Megamind scowled and blew a soft raspberry at her, which earned him a slap on the backside. It made him jump and turn fuchsia from the shock, yet he still laughed. Annabelle smiled, thinking that this couple was adorable, but Megan, who had been standing there for a few minutes, turned away and gagged.

"I got more than you would think!" Annabelle answered.

Megamind, rubbing the spot where Roxanne had spanked him, was confused. "Where exactly did you put the food, though?"

Annabelle rolled her purple eyes as if the answer was moronically obvious.

"Duh, extra-dimensional storage place!"

Megamind was instantly intrigued. His eyes sparkled with interest.

"Extra-dimensional? How?" And then he felt stupid. It was obviously magic. Such a device for conjuring up extra-dimensional was teetering on the edge of impossible, but with Megamind's inventive skills, it could be done.

Rrrgh, if only he had a piece of paper to write this down on! This world of magic was giving him so many wonderful ideas for new-fangled contraptions, and whenever Megamind had an idea, it kept nagging him over and over until the idea became a blueprint, or even just a sketch. If he didn't get this idea out, he'd go crazy!

"Magic", Annabelle replied, seeming to read the blue hero's mind. With that, she reached her hand into the air, and closed her fingers on what seemed like an imaginary zipper pull. She pulled it down swiftly, and a black slit suddenly sliced through the air out of nowhere. With her other hand she reached inside the blackness and took out a slice of buttered bread, some turkey slices, a sausage, and a whole apple.

Megamind clamped his mouth shut so he wouldn't risk drooling. After two days without food, all that looked like heaven.

Megan looked even hungrier.

"Gimme!" She yelled without thinking, and she tried to grab for the food. Annabelle held her back, and closed the black slit in the air. Megan still groped for the food.

"For the love of Zeus, Megan, control yourself!" Annabelle chided annoyedly as she held the food out of arm's reach.

"I haven't eaten in TWO MONTHS!" Megan protested desperately. "If I don't eat now, my metabolism will catch up with me, and I'll starve literally to death!"

Annabelle sighed and gave Megan the buttered bread, sausage, and turkey. The readhead snatched them and took a large bite out of the bread. Her eyes seemed to roll back into her head with satisfaction.

That left the apple for Roxanne and Megamind.

"Are you guys good with just the apple?" Annabelle asked the twosome as she casually tossed the fruit softly in her hand. Megamind immediately nodded and grabbed the apple from the cloudsprite's hand before she had a chance to give it to him. The red, spotty skin stood out against Megamind's flawless blue skin. The fruit felt equally flawless, round and perfect.

Annabelle smirked.

"You kids have fun…eating. I'll be…brushing my teeth."

And with that, Annabelle took off to her bathroom, leaving Megamind and Roxanne to themselves.

It was these types of moments that Megamind treasured, no matter how short. He just…he just loved Roxanne so much. More than he could love anyone. What was it about her that made him feel this way? He would most likely never know.

Megamind took Roxanne's hand in his and they both went upstairs to the loft to enjoy the…apple. It wouldn't exactly suffice, but it was _something._ They probably wouldn't see food again for a long time unless there was food the Voodoo Lady possibly had something edible in her so-called chamber…

So now they were sitting on the edge of the small bed rather closely together…

"There's nothing sharp to cut this is half with, is there?" Roxanne asked vaguely and looked around as if she would spot some sort of knife.

"Nuh-uh", Megamind replied, snaking his long blue arm around Roxanne. He held out the apple to her mouth, and she took a small bite out of it. He brought it to his own mouth and took a bite out of the other side as well.

"So what do you think we've gotten ourselves into, exactly?" Roxanne asked him.

"Megamind swallowed and answered, "I honestly don't know. Fairies, cloudsprites, evil toothpick-waisted trillionaires bent on conquering the world—the very, very last thing I would expect. In fact, I would never have given any of this a second thought. I've never believed in magic at all, yet here it is. It was like a punch in the face when Megan showed me those wings of hers." Megamind shivered a bit. Her wings were such a sorry sight; mangled and torn up almost to a pulp. Narcissa had done that, no doubt.

Roxanne bit into the apple. "I'm going to wake up tomorrow and think this was all some twisted dream", she said inbetween chews. "Even being with you, I'll think was a dream. Even after a month of dating, I would've never expected you to change so much, and that my _boyfriend_ actually used to be the most hated villain."

Megamind's heart rose until it was throbbing high in his throat. After Roxanne had considered him her boyfriend, he had heard nothing else she said except that word bouncing around his head.

Wow. She had finally said it. Megamind tired to swallow the incessant heartbeat and focused on returning the feeling.

"Well…" He said after he had recovered from the pleasant initial shock, "I never would've guessed that my girlfriend would look so good in silver and black…and those gloves…" Megamind couldn't resist. He picked up Roxanne's free hand and kissed it—twice. Roxanne laughed softly.

Megamind was just so happy now. To love—to be loved—was exhilarating. And he had only experienced it for a mere month that had flashed by so quickly. From the very beginning, Megamind had never really felt complete, and he couldn't help but wonder what was missing.

The answer was clear. Roxanne had been missing.

Megamind chewed on another bite of apple and set Roxanne's hand back down. "I love you."

"I love you, too", she returned.

* * *

><p>Megamindluv4918: SCENE! That was beautiful!<p>

Roxanne: It would've been better if it ended with a kising scene...

Megamind: (Looking at Roxanne flirtatiously) I agree!

Megamindlu4918: Umm... in case you two didn't know, you were eating an apple...and wasn't that fluffy enough?

Roxanne: I guess. But plan a kiss scene soon...!

Lol :D


	17. Chapter 17

Bleu Leather

Chapter 17

Annabelle woke up in a mangled mound of bedsheets. Why was she sweating so much? Why was her hair so messy? Well, messy for a cloudsprite. Her hair didn't really have strands. Just…cloudiness.

That nightmare was petrifying.

She knew it was just a silly little nightmare, but sometimes silly little nightmares had meanings. Megamind had told her about the nightmares and strange happenings that chained behind each other and followed him and Roxanne all the way to Narcissa's capturing them. But this was different. This thought had been nagging at her tremendously and it would not let go. It was like one of Megamind's many brainbots had clamped onto her tightly and with it carried the bumbling, annoying, terrifying thought that showed no sign of letting go anytime soon.

That diary…

Annabelle's face scrunched up with worry. She turned her head on her pillow to face Megan sleeping next to her. The readhead was snoring ever so slightly, and her hair was a little messy from tossing and turning. You could barely make out that she wasn't just a sleeping head, because the heavy comforters buried her skinny body in lumps.

And no doubt, Megamind and Roxanne were cuddling up in their bed, asleep. Annabelle smiled sadly to herself when she thought about it. They were such a perfect couple.

But the nightmare made her worry. This whole day, when Megan and everyone had found her, she was mostly pretending to be cheerful because she was deathly nervous that Megan would ask her about her diary.

And Annabelle was terrified that the Rebels would find out eventually that she had told them a big fat lie. Again.

Annabelle was a liar. She didn't want to be a liar, but she was, and the habit would not cease.

You see, Annabelle's diary was the one artifact that needed to be hidden from Narcissa at all costs. The information in there was fatally important.

And now it was in her hands. The world was doomed.

Annabelle covered her face with both her hands and slid them down slowly. What was she to do about this? Surely she could hold off the truth to the other Rebels for a while longer.

But for how long? How long until the lie got so big and swollen that it burst and everyone hated her? The Rebels had forgiven her in the past, but Annabelle wasn't so sure that they'd let her off the hook this time. This was a bigger deal than ever.

And Narcissa also knew about her compulsive lying. Many times, she had offered Annabelle to join her side in taking over the world. Narcissa had claimed that Annabelle would be handsomely rewarded for joining her, and that they could both bask in the glory of ruling Earth. Even once, she had offered the princess a superior spot in the plot; being Narcissa's number one sidekick.

Annabelle flat-out refused each offer, no matter how persuasive Narcissa got. Was her lying all that Narcissa wanted on her side, not just Annabelle? She needed a dirty, filthy liar to cover up all the evil in her black heart and black everything? That was cold, but definitely not the lowest she had stooped.

And nothing would ever make Annabelle change sides. She needed to be good. She needed to be rid of her lies, and all that came with it. She was putting herself through a kind of rehabilitation, but it was having no effect so far. And she was honestly trying her best, but it was hard!

Annabelle remembered her first lies. She remembered the feeling that she got when she had fibbed for the first time. She had thought it would make her a cooler person, even if she was already a princess.

So she experimented and made up rules for lying.

She had to keep track of her lies so she wouldn't end up with a huge spiderweb of made up truths to go through at the end of the day.

The lies you told had to be believable, and complex enough so that those would be believable as well.

And if all went wrong, sometimes there was enough evidence built around the lie so someone else could be blamed. Lying was a very difficult process, and Annabelle's only desire was to stop doing just that. She wanted to defeat Narcissa. She wanted to reunite with her family, and apologize to Whitney…because…

She loved him.

How could she not have realized it sooner? It might've been an arranged marriage they were supposed to have, but this one would work out just fine because Annabelle _wanted_ to marry him, in four or five or so years. She would never know why cloudsprite royalty still followed the age-old arranged marriage for princesses, and making those princesses marry at around sixteen, if not, seventeen.

Annabelle almost brought herself to tears the way she had kept her feelings under deep wraps just before she got kidnapped four months after she met Whitney. Annabelle had been picking up vile songs that described Narcissa, and they were about betrayal, grief, rage, and depression. They had put her into such a mood, and then…

She put the puzzle together, and everything fit perfectly.

Narcissa's interpretation was not stubborn like Megamind's. Annabelle had accurately gathered that she was going to be kidnapped by this trillioniare sooner or later.

That was also one of the lies she had committed prior to the kidnapping. Everywhere she went, she disguised her terror with an attitude as bubbly as she could manage.

But once, Whitney had caught her sobbing her eyes out, and Annabelle clammed up when he asked her what was wrong.

After a few more days, and an apology, Whitney started to get worried about Annabelle's continually growing jumpiness and constantly swelling anxiousness.

Whitney was definitely spooked when he had attempted to hold Annabelle's hand for the first time, and then she had drawn back with an almost haunted look on her face.

"Annabelle!" He had exploded. "What's up with you these days? Why won't you tell me that anything's wrong? Something is bothering you, and I'm getting worried. Tell me what's going on _now_."

Annabelle had simply run off, Whitney trailing behind. Annabelle ran and ran until she had safely reached the palace and was in her room with the door locked.

Her heart shattered when she looked out her window and saw the slim, tall figure of Whitney standing in the foggy night with the most hurt look on his face she had ever witnessed.

But before she could call him back to apologize, he had walked away with his head hung so low, it looked like his neck was on the verge of breaking.

Annabelle distinctly remembered what had happened mere hours after she had cried herself to sleep. It would haunt her mind for the rest of her otherwise normal human lifespan.

While she was curled up on the floor, upon a mound of curtains she had pulled over herself, a quite strong tingle on the back of her neck jolted her awake.

She wished it hadn't. The moment she snapped her eyes open, all the horrible memories of the past days, and hours before, came back flooding her brain with misery. She'd either have to cry herself to sleep again, or play a sad enough melody on her piano that would satisfy her grief just right.

She hadn't had the chance when the window panes in her window started to give a terrible groan of stressed wrought iron. She swiveled her head to the window, watching it with her intent violet eyes to see what the heck that was.

And then her hair flew over her eyes, for there had been a sudden rush of icy cold air that had zoomed up her back and stung the spot of bare back that her cropped top allowed.

What was happening?

Before she had a chance to flinch, the icy air was wrapping itself around her whole body.

As if it sensed that she was about to scream, the air rapidly dove down her throat, and froze her trachea.

Her eyes started to twitch.

Her jaw trembled.

Her already white, white skin (and that was her normal skin color) turned the color of an icicle.

Toes numb…

Then the world slipped away.

That was how Annabelle got kidnapped by Narcissa. Taken by one of her earliest slaves, Minerva the Spirit of Ice. Annabelle didn't exactly know what the "Spirit of Ice" was, but it was a haunting force that rendered victims paralyzed from stabbing cold.

Narcissa kidnapping her was partly her own fault though, because she shouldn't have kept the knowledge of her arrival to herself. She should've at least told Whitney, and then he would've done something about it. Heck, with his occasional overinflated ego, he would send armies form his father's kingdom to make sure Narcissa never touched Annabelle. That was really sweet, in an over-the-top kind of way.

But Annabelle had to deal with the present problem of her diary. She surely couldn't find it anywhere; Narcissa wasn't stupid. If anywhere, it was probably in a high-security vault sealed with endless enchantments and booby traps. The information concealed in the pages held indescribable power and exposed the entire world to mayhem in the wrong hands. Annabelle now wished she had never picked up a sapphire phoenix-feather quill and started spilling her feelings out on the paper in words that were so vividly detailed, that it was hard for anyone to interpret it if they didn't pay precise attention.

And why had she written down so many valuable secrets in that book? It made no sense. She had been as naive as a sheep, thinking that no one would dare to even give the diary a second thought if she never mentioned it.

But somehow Narcissa had found out about it.

And how had she?

Annabelle had just asked herself a rhetorical question. Megan had done it.

Of course, it wasn't on purpose. Narcissa had forced a truckload of information out of the disabled fairy by performing countless torturing spells and hexes upon her and made her suffer tremendously until the secrets gushed out of her mouth.

Megan had no words to describe how sorry she was, but Annabelle didn't want to hear it for about two weeks, but then afterwards everyone was forgiven. Even Aidan had forgiven her, because Megan had been forced to squeak out information about him and the Infernoi people.

"Ugghhh…" Annabelle sighed and slid her hands down her face again. She was so troubled, and she was lying about this feeling to the Rebels. What a horrible label it would put on her when Megamind and Roxanne found out! Only today had she known the two lovebirds.

Annabelle felt like a balloon drained of air and stretched out over and over until she became exhausted. This was hopeless. At least, she hoped, she could hold off this lie until she had to 'fess up.

Oh, who was she kidding?

The world was doomed.

* * *

><p>AN How'd ya like Annabelle's POV? What an angsty little princess... she's gonna be a lot more kick-butt in the later chapters. Heck, everyone's gonna be really kick-butt when I CUT TO THE FREAKIN' CHASE! why does it take me so long to do that? :\

...please R&R!

SPOILER: new character coming up in next chap!


	18. Chapter 18

Bleu Leather

Chapter 18

Megan had awakened considerably earlier than anyone else. The gray light that was dribbling through Annabelle's few windows also told her that it would be a strangely dismal day. Paris was almost never dismal…

But Megan wasn't thinking about that at the moment. She was focusing on what she had suddenly stumbled upon, almost out of nowhere.

Was it her? Was it really, really her?

Megan pinched her pale arm to assure herself she wasn't having a twisted dream. Her breath quickened, and her heart throbbed.

Megan hadn't seen her for almost a year. Wasn't she supposed to be lost in a freak time paradox she had caused?

Apparently not, because Samantha was residing in this old metal storage cabinet.

Megan reached out tentatively, her fingertips shaking. She touched the purple metal that was Samantha's helmet. It felt old, and she had definitely undergone some changes through the time she had been gone. For one, she had Bluetooth installed in her cute, curly antennae; something she had not had before, though she wished for it. And some of the body parts had a slightly more modern design than last year.

Megan had found the long-lost Rebel. Samantha was alive.

But was she well? Megan didn't even know how to reboot her. And she looked awfully dusty. She had probably been neglected in this cabinet for a long while.

Scratch that. She could be hopelessly broken and beyond repair, for all Megan knew.

Unless…

A lightbulb went off in her head. Who else but Megamind? If he could invent the invisible car of the future, he could surely repair a measly little robot. Easy!

But knowing Megamind, even for this brief amount of time, he'd probably get creative and spritz on a new paint job for her . Megan inspected the robot closely, and found out that she really needed one, in fact. In some places, the purple paint was scratched, or even chipped away. Even though her metal eyelids were closed, Megan was certain that her blue LED lights she had for eyes needed a serious polishing. The numerous buttons, dials, and switches on her arms looked stiff with grime, which rendered them useless until they could be cleaned.

"Megamind, you got your work cut out for you", Megan murmured to herself as she pulled the robot out of the storage case as quietly as possible. She still couldn't believe Annabelle even had a whole workshop in this hidden room. Megamind would be squealing with joy, because he adored anything that associated with mechanical things, and plus, he needed someplace to work with the building up ideas he was getting. They were starting to clog up some of his brain space, even if it was several hundred IQ points higher than an average human's.

Luckily, Samantha was light. And the corrugated rubber that made her flexible in all the right places was strangely still bendable.

_Eh. Then again, she is still about 10% human. How did she even get to be a cyborg? _

Megan carried the robot up the tightly spiraled stairs that led to the loft where Megamind and Roxanne slept.

And then she stopped halfway.

She wanted to make sure she wasn't intruding on any of their…err… _privacy._

With that, Megan slowly set Samantha down in an awkward position on the stairs and slowly made her way up just to get a quick peek at the couple.

Megan got just close enough to glimpse that Megamind had both his arms encircled around Roxanne, his cheek rested on her luminous hair. Megan briefly got worried when she saw that he was shirtless on top, but she glanced further down and saw that the covers were just low enough to see that he was still wearing…_pants._ Good. And Roxanne still wore the cropped top from last night, but she had taken off the skirt and left the leggings underneath. Well, the skirt _was_ a little stiff to sleep in.

Okay, the coast was clear. Megan returned to retrieve the purple robot and carried her up the stairs the rest of the way.

Then she was faced with the problem of waking up the blue alien. Did she really have to?

Of course! Samantha needed to be fixed now!

Megan rested the cyborg against the wall, and tentatively reached her pale finger out to poke softly at Megamind's shoulder blade. He moaned almost inaudibly.

Megan tried again. Her finger sort of nervously retracted once before poking him twice, this time a bit harder. He didn't stir.

Hmm. "Megamind", Megan whispered semi-softly. "Megamind!"

This time, he shifted positions and his neon green eyes snapped awake.

"What is it?" He suddenly sat bolt upright, in case something was possibly wrong. Then his head angled to the right, and he saw Samantha.

"What the…!"

"I know, I know, I need you to fix her!" Megan chided, pointing to the cyborg. "She's a Rebel! I thought she was lost in a time paradox, but apparently not…"

Megamind's bluish eyebrows were raised to full height, both out of shock and excitement.

Then his face fell slightly. "If I'm going to fix…the robot, I'll need tools. Lots. Annabelle doesn't have any."

"Yes she does."

Megamind's face brightened again. "Where?" He asked eagerly.

"Another hidden room I found."

"Great", He said. "Just hold on a minute." Megamind swung his legs out of bed, pulled on the barb-covered boots, snapped on the intricate cape, slipped on the simple black gloves, and stuck the curly black mask around his luminescent green eyes.

"One question that's very belated", Megamind began out of wonder. "Why didn't Annabelle give me a shirt?"

Megan shrugged. "She does what she wants. It might be because cloudsprite males don't wear shirts. It's illegal for them to."

"Really?" Megamind said, dumbfounded. "Don't they freeze to death?"

"I have no clue", Megan said dryly as she got impatient. "Come downstairs."

With a glance over his shoulder, first Megamind looked at Roxanne longingly. She was still fast asleep.

Then he scooped up the robot and carried her downstairs. Along the way, he observed it and realized that this robot was more advanced than even the technology Megamind used in the present. It actually kind of disgusted him, though, to look at the dust coating her body, and the grime wedged inbetween the buttons, switches, and dials on her arms.

Except repairs like this were just the sort of thing he adored. He did this all the time. There was just something about picking up a wrench, screwdriver, or whatever and going to work that just set him in his own little universe. And it helped things flow together when he was listening to classic rock music (preferably AC/DC).

Megamind wished Annabelle's helmet could work without her head touching it. Oh, well… Megamind had some of the songs memorized. Playing through them in his head wasn't nearly as satisfying as it blowing full blast out a boombox, though. Plus, it might break some of his concentration, and he wouldn't want that with a robot that looked this advanced.

Megan stepped through the door she had found earlier, and Megamind followed.

He almost dropped Samantha. Never was he so amazed at seeing an actual workbench, toolboxes and packages of sticky notes everywhere, spare parts, everything that would make almost any mechanical project completely perfect.

"Oh my—wow!" Megamind exclaimed, at a loss for words. Before his arms could go any weaker, he laid the dusty purple cyborg across the large workbench in the room. As much as he wanted to gather up miscellaneous tools and supplies, and start doing _some_thing with them, he had to focus on the present situation of repairing this robotic Rebel. Only an idiot would just snatch up hardware and power drills without even the slightest notion of what the problem was with his reparation project. Megamind had to observe the robot and figure out how to reboot her.

"So Megan, where did you find this… insect-headed robot?" Megamind asked the fairy, noting Samantha's teardrop-shaped head with curly wire antennae on either side.

"In this storage cabinet", Megan answered, pointing to the metal cabinet in the corner of the room. "I have no clue what the cheese she was doing in there, but I'm glad I found her. She's been missing for over a year now, and the rest of the Rebels had a theory that she had caused a time paradox and disappeared. Guess we were wrong."

Megamind widened his Furbish green eyes. "So you're saying this robot can travel through time?" He was astonished! An… almost living time machine!

Megan nodded. "But she's not necessarily a robot. She's a cyborg from fifty years ago."

"What?"

Megan held her hands up to calm Megamind down. "She was the previous owner of the naiad chopstick you gave to Roxanne. She inherited the power to toy with time in any way she wants to, so she tried out being immortal. If she hadn't, she'd be in her sixties right now. Back in about 1955, Narcissa kidnapped her because she mistook her for _some_ kind of magical creature, though I don't know which.

"Once, she came across a naiad and she had to fight free of it. It was trying desperately to drown her, and then she snatched that chopstick out of its hair for some reason. Then it started doing weird things to her, and…I'm not clear on the rest."

Megamind was still confused. "Well, then how did it get back to that naiad I stole it from yesterday?"

"Once again: I don't know." Megan gave a rueful shrug.

Megamind still had questions, though. "How did she become a cyborg if she started out as a human? I've seen children's cartoons with cyborgs in them, and to this day, I still have no idea how they become part robot."

Megan tried not to giggle at the way he pronounced the word, "robot". When he spoke it, it sounded like "ro-_bawwt_".

"Nobody knows, really. Either that, or my memory is receding. Maybe she got some weird surgery when she traveled to the year 2056. Or they just experimented on a girl from the 1950's because they still hadn't invented the time machine for themselves."

"I'd like to see how they did that…" Megamind commented, turning back to Samantha. He slid a finger down the finish of her insect-resembling head, gathering an impossible amount of dust in the process. He blew a puff of air at her, and the dust exploded into the air in billowy clouds of allergen.

And then Megamind and Megan both went into fits of coughing and sneezing for several seconds before quieting down.

Then Megamind noticed something inscribed upon the robot's bosom. It was an acronym that read E.C.R.

"Megan, do you know what this E.C.R. stands for?" He asked, looking at the letters intently.

"Experimentational Cyborgian Robot", Megan said without stumbling over words at all. "Though some of us just call her Eckere. Aidan calls her Samantha, which was her name before she became this…android."

"Eckere's a cool name", Megamind said. "But she's in need of repair, and a few touch-ups."

"Here it comes…" Megan murmured to herself.

"She could use a brand-new paint job."

"And there it is."

Megamind inspected Eckere more closely. "Hmm… her circuit board may need to be rewired... and her hard drive, I need to save the information on it…"

Megamind observed Eckere's cylindrical feet. "Megan, could you get me a flathead screwdriver?"

Megan immediately obeyed and retrieved a whole toolbox. It was as heavy as at least three bowling balls, but she managed to drag it to the blue genius. Almost instinctively, Megamind's gloved hand delved into the piles of tools and his fingers closed around a flathead at once. He hadn't even taken his eyes off of Eckere to get the screwdriver.

Megamind squinted and started to unscrew a little screw on Eckere's cylindrical feet. He unscrewed three more, and removed a plate of purple striped with blue metal to reveal…

What looked like…chocolate. Little squiggly pieces of chocolate.

"What the heck?" Megamind exclaimed, dumbfounded. "What're theses doing in a _fuel tank?_"

Megan sidled over by his side to peer into Eckere's fuel tank. She was unbothered by this strange thing.

"Chocolate-covered Cheetos."

"Huh?"

"She loves them", Megan said with a shrug.

"But how…why…" Megamind was befuddled. "If she's mostly robot, how does she ingest it?"

"If she eats food, all the energy in it is sucked from it at stored in her battery", Megan explained.

Megamind went a bit purple at what he was about to say.

"Does it produce…you know…um…"

"Her body conserves every bit of the food, and there is no waste", Megan finished for him.

Megamind turned back to look inside the fuel tank. What would a chocolate-covered Cheeto taste like? He was still hungry, and he needed food. And he should save some for Annabelle and Roxanne.

He picked one out; one that wasn't touching the walls of the fuel tank, and popped it into his mouth. He chewed slowly at first, and then his eyebrows rose slightly.

It was kind of good actually! Chocolate and cheese together seemed kind of gross, but the flavors blended perfectly.

And this awakened Megamind's huge sweet tooth, bigger than his head even.

He found himself wrestling Megan for the last few chocolates Cheetos, and Megan won most of them.

"Well, wasn't that a breakfast!" Megan exclaimed, her red hair falling over her eyes. She puffed it back up where it belonged. "I've never even bothered to give chocolate Cheetos a second thought. Eckere eats them by the fistful."

Megamind cocked his eyebrow at the strange but interesting fact. There weren't even any hinges at Eckere's jaw. Were they invisible or something?

Well, no time to ponder that now. He had to diagnose Eckere for any more problems she might have.

"Okay… well, chocolate _Chee_-tos have to go, and the fuel tank cleaned and filled… maybe tweak the Bluetooth connection… _definitely_ clean all her blinky dials… and what the heck. I'll run some diagnoses on her Internet for fun."

Megan didn't know how he was to do all this in less than a day, even.

"Okay…" The fairy started slowly. "And how long will this take?"

"An hour or two", Megamind simply replied. "I work fast. Human mechanics do a whole days worth of work on a broken car, and I can do what they do if half that time", he boasted with a roll of his eyes like glinting emeralds.

Megan smirked. She had only known this alien for a couple days, and she already knew exactly what he was like, and how much of an egomaniac he could be.

"Anything I can help with? You know, small things. I'll leave the bigger jobs to the professional", Megan said.

"Maybe you can help with the paint job…if there's any paint in here."

"Puh-shaw. What color?"

"Here's the color scheme I'm thinking of: Black with silver and blue accents, and instead of the acronym on her chest, I'll write "Eckere"."

_Typical,_ Megan thought, and set to work.

* * *

><p>The moment the last spritz of paint was applied to Eckere, Megamind was thoroughly satisfied. Satisfied because of the outstanding quality of his work and it had satisfied his occasional compulsion to work with metal.<p>

Megamind was also glad that Megan had found a pair of thick work gloves for him and herself, because he'd rather not have the sleek ones Annabelle gave him ruined. The repair had proved to be difficult, and Megamind ended up asking Megan where Eckere's hard drive could be ejected, _and_ she had helped him diagnose the Internet that was at least upgraded forty-five times more than even his own superior connections back at home. And the security on that cyborg's Internet was infinite. Megamind had to dig deep into his own memory to figure out how to severely hack in from the control panel on Eckere's back.

And he had done it. His first repair of a robot from fifty years in the future. That, he considered, was a definite historical moment.

And now all he had to do was start her up.

"You ready Megan?" Megamind asked, his finger hovering over an unseen button Megan had missed before. The previously purple metal on there was now a sleek, flawless shade of ebony, and her name Megamind had filigreed carefully on her front made it all come together precisely.

"Start her up! Please!" Megan was impatient all of a sudden.

Megamind's finger retracted from the button a little, though, just to make Megan jittered.

"I'm still not too sure if I accidentally changed her language setting to Spanish while I was examining her artificial intelligence chip…"

Megan gave an exaggerated, annoyed sigh. "Buddy! Here's what I say! ¡Apúrate y presiona el botón para que Eckere se puede ayudársenos, Megamente!"

Megamind's eyes widened when he heard Megan speak that perfect Spanish so fluently. Unfortunately, he didn't catch any of that, except "Megamente", which was most likely referring to him. The way his name sounded in Spanish…it was so…_evil._ The sound of it was just so alluring when it had a perfect Spanish accent.

Megan was tapping her foot rapidly. "Do I need to translate? I said, hurry up and push the button so that Eckere can help us, Megamind!"

"Okay, okay!"

Megamind pressed Eckere's "on" button.

Immediately, he heard a small mechanical whirr, then the blue light in the middle of her circuit board on her chest lit up, and in the middle of it was the distinct Apple logo.

_Biiiiiinnnggg_… went the equally distinct sound of an Apple product starting up.

Megamind watched in awe as Eckere's robotic fingers trembled, ever so slightly.

Her LED light eyes flicked open, and she angled her arms jerkily behind herself to prop herself up on both metal hands.

"It's…alive!" Megamind blurted, for that was what he was thinking. He colored and clapped his hand over his mouth. Eckere's insect-like head looked in the direction of Megan, whom was beaming excitedly.

Eckere went from gradual movements of a real robot to natural movements of a human girl.

"Megan!" Eckere exclaimed. Her voice was metallic and shrill. The unseen eyelids she had curved upwards happily, and Megamind was amazed at how well they expressed emotion.

Her mouth as well. It moved as naturally as real lips.

"Eckere! What happened to you? Everyone says you got lost in a time paradox!" Megan was bouncing up and down with questions.

Eckere ignored her for a second to ogle at Megamind, who smiled crookedly at his creation. (Well, technically it was his creation.)

"Analyzing DNA. Retrieving data…Processing…" Eckere droned on as she scanned Megamind. He watched as her eyes filled with encrypted codes and little loading signs as she studied the blue alien that had resurrected her.

As soon as she finished, she blinked a few times and went back to acting human again.

"Hello Megamind, my creator. My name is Samantha or Eckere as I am more commonly called." The cyborg girl stuck out her metal hand, and Megamind slowly shook it.

"Hello to you too, Eckere", He returned. "But… I'm not exactly your creator, am I? I only rebooted you."

"You are my creator", Eckere corrected, giving Megamind a respectful look through her remarkably expressive face. "Just look at this paint job!" Eckere admired her arms, which were no longer grimy and dusty. "And you've bettered my Internet connection. My Bluetooth is outstanding, my hard drive clearer to read, and you've overall created a work of art out of me, therefore… oh, _re_creating me. I thank you immensely."

Megamind liked this robot immediately. For once, she seemed to have no attitude like Annabelle and Megan. "So, since we brought you back to life, do you remember that you are a Rebel?" Megan asked Eckere firmly, grabbing her by her glossy black shoulders. Eckere's eyes narrowed, like she was frowning, which she was. "Were you battling sea serpents when they were giving out artificial intelligence chips?" Eckere twisted the classic put-down. Megamind laughed.

Megan took her hands off of Eckere's shoulders. "Eckie, I think you've forgotten that non-cyborgs have actual, pulsing brains in a skull made of bone. Only you have a brain the size of a tortilla chip in a hollow cavity where your real brain used to be, and that "tortilla chip" is surrounded by pretty-colored wires."

"Whatever", Eckere said airily. "What do you expect from a cyborg from 2056? My hard drive is only a little bigger than my artificial intelligence chip, and it holds a lifetime worth of information. My data canister is like an extension of that."

"You didn't answer my question, you glorified toaster oven!" Megan snarled, clearly exasperated.

"Who are you calling a _toaster oven?_"

"HEY!"

Megamind's outburst silenced them both as if their mouths had been peeled off of their faces and ripped apart into a million pieces. Megamind bored a hole in both their heads with his green eyes acute and persistent.

Megamind pouted at Megan, not meanly, but firmly. "Meg, you have to learn to calm down once in a while. Eckere, do you remember Rebelhood?" Megamind asked the cyborg softly. Eckere nodded, and as she did, something in her head rattled slightly.

Then the door behind them swung open.

"Roxanne! Annabelle!" Megamind said snapping his head upwards, a smile creasing his face. He was always glad to see Roxanne, and Annabelle was working her way into a part of his heart.

"Megamind, what're you—what the _heck?_"

Roxanne looked at Eckere with wide eyes. Eckere examined Roxanne as she had Megamind not so long before.

"Hello Roxanne Ritchi, my name is Samantha. Or more commonly, Eckere."

"What…?"

"She's a Rebel", Megamind amended as he sidled over to his girlfriend to kiss her on the ear. He was careful not to touch her, for he still had the oily, dirty work gloves on his slender hands.

"Eckere!" Annabelle brightened and thrust herself at the cyborg, hugging her even though she knew Eckere couldn't feel it.

Though, Eckere could still have emotions. She wasn't all robot.

"I know what you are about to say. I did not get stuck in a time paradox, just so everyone knows", Eckere reminded everybody.

"But…Eckere, why does everyone think that?" Roxanne asked, trying to warm up to the robot.

"And what exactly are you?"

"I am an Experimentational Cyborgian Robot. Eckere for short. The naiad chopstick Megamind has given to you was once mine, and I inherited the power to toy with time. It started when I was a kidnappee captured by Narcissa for unknown reasons, and that was in 1955. I figured to use my power to make myself immortal until I got tired of being twelve years old, and in the meantime, I traveled to the far future.

"Along the way, the people got suspicious of this girl from 1955 that had come from the past, so the government captured me and started implanting my human body with updated robot technology. I had to come back for more each time, because I could only travel to 2056 to get my battery charged.

"Decades passed, and eventually I crossed paths with Megan and the others. I became a Rebel for fun, even though I knew Narcissa would be defeated, because the future wasn't a barren wasteland—"

"HOLD UP!" Megamind suddenly interrupted. A fact hit him hard in his incredibly sharp brain.

"Eckere! If you went to the future, that means Narcissa won't take over the world after all!"

Eckere gave him a weird look. "That…was what I was going to say. You're point is?"

"My point is", Megamind said, "that if we are going to defeat Narcissa, we need to stick with the absolute best plan we come up with. If we don't, the future will change dramatically. Get it?"

All four girls in the room looked pensive for a moment, and then they all processed it.

"Can I continue?" Eckere piped up. "I'll just explain the whole assumption of me getting in a time paradox in a nutshell."

"Go ahead", Roxanne encouraged.

"My last time travel trip was before I spontaneously disappeared just months after signing up as a Rebel. It went a bit wrong, and damaged some of my parts, so I dragged myself back to this room and into a storage cabinet where I accidentally shut down and couldn't wake myself back up."

The five Rebels were silent for a moment.

"And then Megamind, you gave me the best repair of my cyborg life."

The blue alien looked proud. Roxanne smirked at him. "Ohh, that was why I was hearing power drills and spray paint at five in the morning. I thought I was imagining it", She said with a small roll of her eyes.

"You did a great job on Eckere, Megamind", Annabelle added, finally speaking. "The black, silver and blue color scheme blends just right, and draws attention to her beautiful blue LED lights."

"Thank you", Eckere nd Megamind both said at once.

"But", Annabelle continued with a slight edge. "Megamind, what you think is her head is actually a helmet."

"Oh no, here we go…"

" Eckere, you know it's not that bad", Annabelle wheedled. "C'mon. You act like being a human is hideous when you used to be nothing but that."

Annabelle realized what she had said. It was the same thing with her lying. It felt like she had just kicked herself in the stomach.

"Fine", Eckere gave in. She twisted her left antenna halfway around, and the teardrop-shaped head melted away like it wasn't even made if metal. It retracted until it was gathered beneath her chin.

Why had Eckere been so afraid? It was probably some of the only human she had left, besides personal emotions and thoughts. Underneath the helmet was only a fair girl with shoulder-length hair the color of chocolate; a little darker than Roxanne's. Her eyes were equally brown. She had a rounded nose, and salmon pink lips.

"I'm putting my helmet back on", Eckere said quickly. Her voice without the helmet was gentle and at the same time kind of dark. "My helmet makes me cooler!" She gave a double fist pump to herself while Megan did a sort of cuckoo sign around her temple.

"Anyway, Eckere", Megamind changed the subject for something more important. "Megan told us about the two things necessary to beat Narcissa, and the one thing we keep away from her at all costs. Do you know one of them? We already know about the Voodoo staff, or whatever it's called."

Eckere looked pensive, or at least as pensive as a cyborg could look. Annabelle felt about to throw up.

_Please don't mention the diary, please don't mention the diary, please don't mention the diary… _

Thankfully, Eckere didn't.

"I think we need to make some sort of sacrifice to weaken her", The robot remembered. "It was way back in my data canister, but I found the file containing the memory. I don't know how the sacrifice will weaken Narcissa, but it'll have an effect. Maybe it has to do with the care that gets put into it, and positive feelings are a great disadvantage to her, unless it's a selfish kind of happiness. Get it?"

"That's helpful to know", Roxanne said. "But maybe we can leave that one for after we get that Staff. The Staff will probably be the hardest to obtain, from what Megan told Megamind and I."

"In fact, we should get going to get it today", Megamind decided, now finally removing the dirty work gloves he realized he still had on. "But Eckere needs to stay behind, because I think she's still a bit unstable. The repair I worked on her was hard, and she might not be ready for haunted labyrinths and possibly dangerous voodoo doctresses. That means…" Megamind trailed off, knowing that nobody would want to volunteer.

And that left…

Oh, she wouldn't like this at all.

"Roxanne", He managed to say. He needed to get this over with. Roxanne would surely protest, but he had to do this.

"Could you… stay and watch Eckere?"

Roxanne looked a bit stricken. "I…well… can't I go too? And isn't there time to make Eckere stable? You did all this body work on her in two or three hours. It shouldn't be hard to fix her further, knowing you."

"But I already said, I don't know what else is wrong with her. She's a foreign robot with foreign technology, some of it that even I can't figure out as quickly as I normally do. And plus, the Staff we need to get first, right? Narcissa could put her plot into action at any given moment." Megamind felt a squabble starting along these lines… he braced himself for an outburst.

"But…" Roxanne had nothing to say back to that, but she was starting to get irritated. "What are you saying? That I can't fight? I'm not delicate."

Megamind was confused, and now he was equally irritated.

"That's not what I said", He snapped darkly, and harsher than he intended it to be. "But if you must bring it up like that, you could get hurt. This situation could be worse than Titan's destruction. His powers weren't magic, and what we're dealing with is more dangerous and unpredictable. "

"I survived Titan! I tried to help! I only came back with whiplash, bruises and a minor concussion. You, on the other hand, almost broke your spine, your skull, and cracked at least six other bones. I can handle Narcissa. Plus, I'm a Rebel, and don't Rebels join the fights against Narcissa?"

"But Eckere needs to be looked after, and my only other choice is you!"

"But why?"

"Because I'm NOT going to lose you again!" This time Megamind gripped Roxanne around her shoulders and vibrated her out of annoyance. Then his grip softened, and he looked sorry.

The blue alien looked at the three other girls in the room. As if Megan could read his mind…

"Oh! Look at that, Annabelle, Eckere, Annabelle's sheet music is strewn across the room, and it looks disastrous! Let's clean it up!" Megan nervously made up an excuse to give Megamind and Roxanne time alone. She pushed her two other friends out the door, and then closed it behind her.

Roxanne looked at her boyfriend through slightly slitted eyes. She wanted to be angry at him, but now he went from irked to his heart-wrenching, tear-jerking, irresistible kicked puppy dog face. That face, anyone was powerless against. His eyes played an enormous part in it, large and sparkling jade green as ever.

"Roxanne, I…"

"I'm not going to get hurt. Don't think I'm made of porcelain, because I'm not."

"I wasn't going to say that!" Megamind persisted. "I had another reason…"

"And what was that?"

"Roxanne, if I lose you, if you get injured, I'll never forgive myself, even if it's not my fault", Megamind said sadly. "You and Minion are the only two people I'll ever be close with, and you made my life complete not a month ago. If I lose you, I'll never be happy again. I sobbed my eyes out over you two days ago!"

Now Roxanne felt honestly sorry for him. She hadn't realized… but of course that had to be the reason! Megamind had thought he would never in a million years find anyone to love romantically, and then she came along. Roxanne understood. He would never find anyone else like her. He had only had Minion to go through all his childhood hardships of having no friends at school, a racist teacher, and living in a prison. Roxanne really had no reason to be angry with him.

"Megamind, I'm…I'm sorry." Roxanne felt ashamed. She had forgotten all about his backstory, and that had been cold of her.

Megamind was about to say something in reply, but was interrupted by her lips crashing against his. At first they surprised him, but then he eased into it, wrapping his arms loosely around Roxanne. The kiss was deep and sweet and apologetic.

They broke apart reluctantly. This was their third kiss.

"It's okay, Roxanne", Megamind said gently, but a bit belatedly. He stroked her hair back once, and was afraid to do it again because it would turn into a series of strokes that would be impossible to stop.

"So you're fine with staying here to look after Eckere, am I correct?" Megamind asked calmly.

"Yes", Roxanne affirmed. "But I really want to help to find the next Rebel."

"Okay, you will. I'm glad we sorted this out", Megamind said, giving Roxanne a weak smile. He hugged her a bit more tightly, and kissed her atop the head.

* * *

><p>"It's fine Roxanne, I'll be back soon. Eckere gave me a communicator so we can stay in touch from wherever I am."<p>

"I know but…" Roxanne trailed off. She didn't know what else to say except to wish Megamind good luck. But she was still worried, even though she knew he was extremely capable. Maybe she was worried because Narcissa was unlike any villain they had ever come across at all for that matter.

Annabelle and Megan on the other hand, were raring to go and save Eboni. The Rebels needed to be gathered up as quickly as possible if Narcissa was to set her plan in motion anytime soon. After Eboni, they needed to get Aidan as well.

"I'll call you through Eckere's connection in about an hour just to check in on you. I promise nothing bad will happen", Megamind continued to assure Roxanne. He was getting better at comforting people in the situation they had gotten into. He leaned forward and gave her a soft kiss on her cheek before Megan and Annabelle grabbed the alien by the wrists and got him out of Annabelle's doors that she had picked the lock of.

And then Roxanne and Eckere were alone.

The reporter turned to the cyborg she had met not an hour ago. She was smiling at her as brightly as a robot could, and Roxanne tried to mirror her but only gave a watery smile.

"So!" Eckere said, "Pac-man?" She pressed the blue light/button in the middle of her chest and opened up a compartment in there. She took out two brightly colored joysticks.

"I guess", Roxanne sighed, but not rudely. "Where do we plug it in?"

* * *

><p>AN YAYZ! ROXANNE AND ECKERE ARE A-GONNA PLAY PAC-MAN! :D Eckere is based loosely on me, including her occaisional insaness that will appear later in the story. Cuz she's gonna glitch beyond even Megamind's repair :o

Dang... I was going to make a little chapter about Roxanne and Eckere playing Pac-man and eating Cheetos -.-

And do you think Eckere seems a little like Gir from Invader Zim? Well, she was inspired by him a bit.

SPOILER: I'm gonna make an Invader Zim fanfic series after this ordeal, cuz I love Invader Zim, too! :D


	19. Chapter 19

Bleu Leather

Chapter 19

It was a hard journey going through Narcissa's gargantuan palace of a mansion. Megamind Annabelle and Megan had to constantly duck and cover whenever there was the slightest sound of approach. It was a good thing Megamind had incredibly keen ears , otherwise they surely would've been spotted that one time when Narcissa herself had walked past, carrying a laptop with her that seemed to be floating in front of her by itself. Magic, without a doubt that had to be. Megamind wondered what she had been typing about, and if he could sometime hack into the laptop to view her files she had probably made about ruling the world. There was most likely valuable information on that computer that could be used against her in her plot. What a slap in the face that would be!

But then again, the security could be higher than even Eckere's Internet. Probably protected by an enchantment that would reinforce the security. Plus, there was no point in trying to find the laptop itself, for it probably resided in Narcissa's bedroom.

Oh, who cared about a computer at the moment anyway? Megamind was trying to help Annabelle and Megan navigate through Narcissa's mansion to ultimately reach her underground wonderland and retrieve Eboni.

"This map is impossible to read", Annabelle kept complaining to Megan. The map Annabelle had discovered hidden in her dorm was in a completely different language she only knew half of, and Megan the same. So actually, there was really nothing Megamind could do to help with the map situation except calculate the locations in the diagrams without the help of a compass.

They were now in a tricky part of the map. They were interweaving their way around the endless spiderweb of corridors and hallways that twisted in and out of the mansion.

It was creepy too. Some magical creatures must've been imprisoned here, because Megamind and the girls got strange sensations and haunting thoughts about things they wouldn't otherwise have thought about in the first place. Were these creatures of darkness? Megamind would think so.

Each wall in all the perplexing maze of corridors was lined with tall doors made of random material, and completely random design. Some didn't even look like doors.

But Megamind distinctly remembered the most poignant and indefinable feelings some of the creatures had radiated, and Annabelle had informed him on how most of these beings were not to be tangled with in any way whatsoever. There was one door Megamind had passed when he had suddenly gotten struck with what felt like a hundred volts of electricity frying all of his nerves, and causing him to collapse in a heap. Megan and Annabelle had panicked big time, and got him away from the creature as soon as possible, because it was one of the dangerous ones. There had been one that had given him an immense feeling of grief, angst, sorrow, and jealousy that almost drove him insane within the first few seconds, and it was terribly hard to break free of the spell and move on. There was even that one time when he was flung into the air without warning and smashed against the walls and ceiling numerous times before Megan had preformed an impressive move where she nimbly jumped between the walls of the corridor, snatched Megamind by his skinny thigh, and yanked him down with extra help from Annabelle.

In fact, that incident had happened not a few minutes ago. Megamind was bruised all over, and for once he was glad he healed much faster than an average human. He didn't know which place was more sore; his head, his backside, or his back.

Annabelle was still intently reading the map, this time determined to avoid all the hazardous prisons so there would be no more further harm done to Megamind.

As she traced her finger along the picture of the winding, twisting maze of corridors, she gasped.

"YES!" She gave herself an exaggerated fist pump. "We're almost out of this labyrinth of prisons!"

"How long until we're out?" Megamind asked the cloudsprite, rubbing his back which was still quite sore.

Annabelle squinted at the map and brought it close to her face. "I think we have to make two lefts, four rights, two lefts again, and then one more right. This map is getting smudgy."

"But how do we get down underground?" Megan asked, the bottom dropping out of her stomach as she realized that it was a much higher security than any of the prison doors they had passed before.

Annabelle looked up. She realized the same thing, and then so did Megamind.

"Uhmm", Annabelle choked out, trying to sound brave, but failed.

"We'll find out when we get to it… I guess?"

Megan opened her mouth to say something but closed it again.

oooooooooo

The map lied.

Where was the gateway to the so-called wonderland in the bowels of Narcissa's fortress? Why was that marked at the end of the labyrinth of prisons, and then when they reached the end, there was just more mansion?

Could that map have been a trap?

Megamind couldn't be much too sure. Knowing Narcissa and her sneaky ways, it was most likely.

Narcissa could be after them with an army of henchmen at any given moment.

The thought was spine-chilling. After coming all this way to rescue a Rebel, they'd get captured and be right back where everything started. That would have been a disaster.

But if they wanted to get underground, they obviously had to make it past more of Narcissa's mansion.

They could do it! Megamind was not one to be a coward.

The first obstacle to tackle was Narcissa's impossibly large parlor. Good thing it seemed empty from activity, but one could never be too careful.

"Screw this map!" Annabelle suddenly growled. "This. Map. Lied!"

Annabelle was about to rip the parchment to shreds, but Megan quickly grabbed both of her wrists pulsing angrily with purple blood.

"You numbskull! This map tells us how to break the enchantment on the door that seals the underground world closed! Read much?" Megan told off Annabelle, but Megamind hissed at them to be quiet, and what if Narcissa could hear them?

The blue alien looked around the doorframe of Narcissa's parlor to make sure they weren't being overheard. Inside was what looked like a cathedral, and no less. There were sofas, armchairs, Chinese rugs, chandeliers made of emerald as green as Megamind's lurid eyes. In every corner there stood marble statues that were duplicates of the Venus De Milo, and there were also golden urns placed all over on every tabletop.

"Ok", Megamind said, licking his blue lips nervously. "We need to be extra careful. Follow my lead."

Megamind, nimble as a Maine Coon, scampered soundlessly over to duck behind a large leather ottoman in the back of the grand parlor. Megan followed suit.

Annabelle, however, wasn't so lucky.

Her black and silver oversized boots proved to be quite noisy when trying to step carefully, and her pearly, pure white face contorted into a wince of guilty nervousness. The deep _clonks_ that her footwear made disturbed the otherwise peaceful quietness of the parlor, and to make it worse, echoed loudly off of the towering walls lined with windows five times the height of a human man.

Megan and Megamind winced as well, and waved their hands frantically to wile her to come over to them immediately. This time she tiptoed in long strides and dove behind the ottoman.

"Annabelle!" Megamind hissed. "Take those boots off! Narcissa could've heard that a mile away!"

"Alright, alright", the princess chided. She slipped the boots off with ease, revealing dainty little white feet with a texture no less than a flawless, milky surface of a wispy cloud. She opened her extra-dimensional storage space and thrust them inside hastily before tailing Megamind to inch slowly across a wall into the next room that branched out of the parlor.

He peeked around the doorframe, and decided it was safe to quietly run up the flight of stairs that lay ahead.

When he reached the top, there were three doors all polished and made out of maple. They had brass door knockers on each, all filigreed with designs of ivy vines.

Should he open a door, or turn right and keep on going right down the hallway?

Maybe he could open the middle door…

But it suddenly burst open.

And a French maid with wild jet black hair and an Asian face was staring right at them, unable to speak or do anything.

"You…" She hissed, pointing a manicured finger right at Megamind. She had a faint accent Megamind could not place, but she was quite menacing.

But what was menacing about a human woman?

And… why did she seem familiar in an odd, twisted sort of way?

One hard look into her squinted eyes painted pastel green, and he knew.

It was...somehow, deep down, Megamind knew it was a naiad.

A… _naiad._ Out of the water, now a mere mortal, and was aging like a normal person.

Megamind gasped. It looked familiar because…

It was the one who he stole the chopstick from.

And she was _livid._

"BLUE BOY!" The growled once again.

She lunged at Megamind quite quickly. It was almost too fast for him to absorb.

And then she was atop him, pinning him to the floor by pinching his mouth closed. She raised a pale fist over his face threateningly.

"I swore someday you would pay", the naiad seethed, "for making me mortal. After you thieved my chopstick, my sisters chucked me out on land for being stupid."

"Mmf!" Megamind kept struggling to free himself of the angry naiad. He was starting to taste blood from how hard she was pinching his mouth closed.

And then his arms came free from where they had been pinned behind his back.

The naiad received a swift blow on the mouth. Stumbling backwards, she spat green blood out on the floor and hissed.

Megamind gave her a fatal glare through his emerald eyes. He was not afraid of these things anymore. He was more annoyed.

A very _bad_ annoyed.

"I've had just about enough of your filthy species and their…_vileness._ You almost killed me once, and for no reason it seemed." Megamind took a few intimidating steps forward. Annabelle and Megan were huddled together near the stairs, seeing what would happen.

"It's because your death is merely a game to us. And now that I can't live for centuries, I'm part of you equally vile mortal race.

"YOU'LL PAY!"

The naiad punched the bottom of his chin, sending Megamind flailing backwards.

He got a little too close for comfort near the banister…

And it was a thirty foot drop from there.

The naiad shoved him overboard.

He fell, his lip busted and bleeding. He fell, with no sense of what was happening.

He could barely decide what to do when…

_Of course._

He outstretched his hand, palm upwards and shot a jet of purple light from his palm. He aimed it for the ceiling, and it slithered up there quickly, sticking to the ceiling and stopping his fall four feet from the ground.

He clutched to the rope of light tightly, as if it was the safest thing in the world. His heart was still racing from the malicious naiad that was probably now after him for what he had technically done to her. He had stolen a valuable artifact from her, and it probably shamed the other naiads so they kicked her out of the water and she turned human. That, to her, was a horrible creature to become, for now she had to grow old. Naiads were incredibly vain, and immortality was what preserved their daunting beauty.

She wanted revenge, it was clear. She was going to gang up with Narcissa if she hadn't already.

The naiad glared over the banister where she thought she killed Megamind. But truth be told, Megamind would have survived if he landed at the right angle. But if he landed on his neck, it would surely snap in two, and all would end.

Megamind shot a smug look up at the seething naiad. Her knuckles were white against the oak banister, her face scrunched up trying to contain the rage.

"All this for growing old?" Megamind finally exclaimed incredulously, throwing a look upwards through his eyes surrounded by black leather masking.

"YES!" The naiad screamed wildly. Her white lace bonnet was askew. "And I don't think you know just how SERIOUS it is!"

Her hand whipped forth and her French Manicured nail actually sliced through the rope of purple light like a real rope. It snapped and Megamind fell on his backside _again._ And it hurt even more.

The alien winced while the purple light retreated back into his hand. His tailbone felt about to snap in two even if his bones were stronger than a human's. It was a sensitive bone for anyone.

Megamind stood up and tried to ignore the pain it brought. And…

Now the naiad was after Annabelle and Megan. The two girls were slung over her shoulders, and her nails dug into their backs. It sounded like she was breaking their skin, from the way the girls were howling.

Megamind growled and shot a beam of light from both his hands up to the ceiling again. Without letting go of the ceiling, Megamind made the light go back into his hand, pulling him upwards like a grappling hook. Now that he had the hang of this power, he did it smoothly and quickly.

The naiad looked temporarily dumbfounded. Her thin face was angled upwards where Megamind was now dangling by his ropes of light.

"Bet you didn't know I had THAT up my sleeve!" Megamind gloated.

The naiad now looked unbothered.

She hopped back up the stairs.

She leapt nimbly onto the oak banister.

Then she jumped downright overboard, Annabelle and Megan still captured.

"What…?" Megamind shot out two other light strands and swung himself to the ceiling over the banister. The naiad was unharmed and smugly staring up at the ex-villain.

She ran off, and she ran fast.

"You won't escape that easily!" Megamind screamed. He decided to go after her daringly.

And his mode of transportation was by swinging on strands of light, resembling Spiderman. It was fun, in a fearful, twisted way. What would she do with Annabelle and Megan? Maybe it was just bait to lure him…

But he still needed to save them from that…_filthy_ naiad. `

A jet of light streamed out from his gloved hand, and he swung down the stairs in one fluent motion. Where did the naiad go?

"AUGH!"

Megan's screams answered his question. The naiad was fleeing from the parlor, and into the maze of a palace belonging to Narcissa.

"No!"

Megamind nimbly wove his way down an untried corridor, tailing the naiad as quickly as he could. The tentacles of light birthed from his hands, and wrapped around and stuck to every stable surface there was. It was much faster than following on foot, he had to say. And it was cooler.

He ricocheted sharply around another doorway, and this time he found the naiad. Megamind noticed she ran considerably faster that a human would.

_She shouldn't be so vengeful_, Megamind thought. _At least she has some of her old features, and a little more bodily capabilities that a human._

He followed the naiad, who had stolen a glance over her shoulder at Megamind. She ran faster while Megan and Annabelle fruitlessly kicked and screamed like toddlers at her back. The naiad seemed not to notice at all.

Megamind decided to make his move. Carefully swinging across the ceiling with one hand, his other was outstretched to Megan and Annabelle. He tried hard to keep up with the pace of the naiad…

She broke his progress when she veered sharply left, the girls still in arm.

"Argh!" Megamind growled. He wondered if there was some sort of detour so he could cut off the naiad and snatch Annabelle and Megan away.

There was.

And he had an idea.

As fast as he possibly could, he swung from ropes of white light over to the archway the naiad would pop out of.

And then hundreds of strands slithered over it, completely blocking her exit.

Megamind could see through the spaces in the light, the naiad's dumbfounded look as she ran straight into the web of luminosity.

To his utter surprise, she stuck to the light as if it were a giant gooey spiderweb. Annabelle and Megan sprawled onto the ground in a heap, and then ran the other way as fast as they could.

Megamind smirked. He had bested the naiad once again. It made him feel powerful, and now he had officially conquered his fear of these maidens.

"I hope you're stuck there for a long time", Megamind sneered, his nose an inch away from the naiad's. She growled in frustration, struggling madly in the sticky mess Megamind had trapped her in.

"Yeah, screw you and all your sisters!" Megan spat. Megamind looked to his side, and there she stood along with Annabelle happily jeering at the naiad.

"We", Annabelle started…

"Hate", Megamind continued…

"YOU!" They all said in unison.

"I'LL MAKE YOU ALL PAY SOMEDAY!" The naiad screeched like a banshee.

Megamind was just as afraid of naiads now as he was of teddy bears wearing bows and tutus and roller skates.

oooooooo

Never…

Never had he dreamed he would get this close to getting flayed alive. Narcissa was practically right in front of their noses. Megamind hated to imagine what she would have done to them if she knew what their intentions were. Rebelhood was to be kept secret until the plan was unleashed and then Narcissa would be kicked in the stomach.

And the very fabric of the plan had almost been undone.

Why was Narcissa everywhere they went? Did she know about this upraise?

Megamind was almost at the gateway, and Annabelle and Megan were following closely behind.

Megamind was still laughing to himself about how he had so won over the naiad in the weirdest way. He had no idea that his light power could act as a spiderweb. And the look on her face was priceless. He still knew it wasn't necessarily time to be constantly and randomly bursting out it fits of sniggers, but he just couldn't help it. Sometimes he just acted like a kid.

Sometimes it was at an unacceptable time; of all times it had to be now. It was earning multiple shushes and scoldings from Annabelle and Megan. At least they were being serious.

Would he have to tape his mouth shut with that duct tape lying over there on the coffee table?

Maybe. But he figured that they were almost at the gateway to the underground.

Megamind kept sneaking with his back against the wall, his heart hammering out of panic that they would be discovered. Narcissa could be anywhere. Plus, there was no telling how long the spiderweb of white light the naiad was trapped in would last. What if she came after them for revenge?

Megamind hoped that she'd get lost in this labyrinth first.

Annabelle sniffed the air faintly.

"Do any of you smell smoke?" She asked, looking around suspiciously.

Megamind inhaled. He had a sharper nose than any of them, so he pinched his nose shut at once. It didn't smell like ordinary smoke…

His muscles tensed when he heard…

_Clonk clonk clonk… _

"Oh God…Narcissa's coming" He murmured with a gloved hand brushing his lips. His breath started to get faster. His heart beat as though he had run a marathon. His face was starting to look ashen…

Narcissa's footsteps stopped short. She was listening intently as if she had heard them talking.

Megamind tried not to have a panic attack. There was nowhere to hide. She was just around the bend from where he was guarding Annabelle and Megan like they were his own daughters. (They were starting to introduce that feeling into him.)

"What do we do?" Annabelle whispered almost inaudibly into Megamind's cape. He took a tentative step back. This ceiling was unusually low, and so low, that Megamind couldn't plaster all three of them on there without Narcissa noticing immediately.

They were truly and honestly trapped.

Megamind yanked the two girls around the wall, hoping that Narcissa wouldn't come that far around to investigate. He looked around that corner slowly, and then his head snapped back around. He winced.

If Narcissa had turned her head at that very moment, all would've been over. Megamind had glimpsed her long enough to see that she was smoking from a long, skinny pipe, the smoke curling up in ringlets from her mouth when she puffed it out. She was wearing a maroon floor-length dress with a cowl neck and long, draping sleeves. Her dirk was strapped tightly around her toothpick of a waist in brown leather with golden studs.

She looked ready to whip it under Megamind's chin in a heartbeat.

Megamind now crouched low to the ground, holding Annabelle and Megan closely against him for their safety. He was braced for Narcissa's outrage when she found them.

She drew nearer.

"Who's there?" She demanded. Her voice stung Megamind's ears as if she had severed them with her knife. She probably would, soon.

Megamind and the two girls were now squeezing each other tightly. They'd be discovered. It was over.

"Hey!"

A disembodied voice rang out suddenly, giving Megamind, Annabelle, and Megan a start. Luckily, it distracted Narcissa as well turning her attention elsewhere from where she had heard Megamind.

The three huddled together breathed a silent sigh of relief.

In the seconds that followed, Megamind heard Narcissa clamber up a staircase, wooshes of what sounded like wind, and Narcissa cursing when the disembodied voice evaded.

Then all was silent.

"What happened?" Annabelle wondered out loud, still whispering.

"This happened."

The boy came out of nowhere. In fact, he was hanging upside down an inch from Megamind's nose. All three of them gasped.

"Antony!" Megan suddenly exclaimed with a smile.

"Antony!" Annabelle exclaimed as well.

"You guys know him?" Megamind asked incredulously. He looked at the boy. He was not ordinary, even though he faintly looked it. He was a pale boy who looked a few years older than the two girls. His hair was bleach blonde and wavy. He had eyes the color of coral, and wore a plain black jumpsuit that clung to him.

His unusual features were obvious. For one, there was a hazy white aura surrounding his entire body. And when he moved, he didn't walk. His body thinned into a line and he wove his way around in a blur until he got where he wanted.

"Yes they know me", Antony said. "And you are…?"

"Megamind", The blue alien said.

"He a new recruit?" Antony asked Megan. The fairy dressed as Invader Zim nodded. "He, and his girlfriend. In fact, Roxanne is the first human we've had in the Rebelhood. How's the Retaliation doing?"

"Not so good", Antony admitted with a wince. "I'm mourning the loss of Malik. He was my best friend, and now he is being digested by the Onyx Dragon. Plus, there's been a delay trying to hack into Narcissa's vault to any more rebellious subjects. Me and Lisande are splitting up to find its new location so we have more people on our side."

Megan nodded, looking a bit sober over Malik. Megamind was confused. Retaliation? Who were Lisande and Malik? Who was _he_?

"What are you talking about?" He mostly asked Antony. He turned to face the alien, almost asking about the fact that he was shirtless, but caught himself.

"I guess Megan hasn't told you this", Antony shrugged. "The Rebels aren't the only group of heroes in Narcissa's prison. There's the Retaliation and then there's another smaller one called The Dissent. We all have a place in stopping Narcissa, but The Rebels are kind of the head of the whole operation. And since Megan is leader of the Rebels, she's basically the big boss."

Megamind's brows knit. He threw a miffed pout at Megan.

"Hey! I'm forgetful once in a while", She said with a rueful smile. Megamind rolled his eyes. Who would forget an explanation so big?

"So, If there's three rebellious groups, does that increase our chance of winning against Narcissa?" Megamind asked Antony hopefully.

"If we find enough others that are interested in an alliance. Otherwise, we stand no chance against the others who have already been brainwashed into her evil bidding. She has to have gathered almost a third of imprisoned creatures on her side." Antony had an angry look in his pinkish eyes.

"Well, three other Rebels are being contained in prisons, and we need all of them to do our part in stopping Narcissa's plan. We're trying to retrieve this…vampire called Eboni, and then we have to negotiate with a voodoo lady to get the Staff", Megamind explained what he had learned.

"And then you need to make that sacrifice…" Antony reminded. "To weaken Narcissa. And keep that diary of yours out of her way, eh Annabelle?" Antony winked at her obnoxiously.

On the outside, Annabelle had a plastic smile glued on her lips. On the inside, she was dying and decomposing.

"Diary!" Megamind breathed. "So that's what was left unexplained…"

"Antony, do you know the way to the undergrounds?" Annabelle asked the spectral boy, changing the subject quickly.

"Don't you have a map?"

"It freakin' lied", Megan grumbled. "We made it past all those corridors of monsters for nothing, and Megamind got his little blue butt fried off by multiple monsters with their own electricity generators. Then some weird force threw him around the entire room, and hurt his butt even more."

"Stop talking about my butt."

"I know the way", Antony said as if were obvious. "The map actually wasn't far off." He took the parchment from Annabelle's still sweaty hand.

"Follow me." The boy wooshed in a circle around the three, then he walked normally for once. Megamind only felt how he moved for a second, but that second was icy and sharp. What was Antony? Some sort of spirit?

They walked for a short while, and they even passed where Megamind had trapped the naiad. She growled like a caged animal when they passed by, and Megamind explained what had happened. He showed Antony the power he had received from the naiad's own chopstick.

And then after a little while longer, Antony led the three into a secret passageway that led to a musty little trapdoor in the ground.

"This is the 'magical' passageway?" Annabelle said, unimpressed with what she was looking at.

"Actually, it's basically an obstacle. After you all pass the haunted labyrinth, then you have to find the Voodoo Lady's chamber.

"Or else _she'll _find _you._"

The note Antony finished on was not happy. The Voodoo Lady sounded horrendous the way Antony had just put it.

"I have a little word of advice. The haunted labyrinth is a hard obstacle to overcome, and it will split you all up depending on your fears", Antony warned. Megamind's enormous brain conjured up a terrifying mental image of spiders covering every inch of his body. It was enough to make him scream.

"After you all make it through, you'll be reunited and then you're on your own to find the Voodoo Lady before she finds you. It's worse if she finds you. And if she offers you tea or chardonnay, take the tea. Don't ask why, but don't refuse what she offers. It'll send her into a fit of rage, and you'll all end up as toads or houseflies." Antony gave a weak laugh as he finished talking.

"Okay", Megamind confirmed that he understood. "Thanks for helping us Antony. Where do you need to go now?"

"Lisande and I are going to meet in Narcissa's kitchen and share what we've gathered from today and yesterday. It was a pleasure to meet you, Megamind. Goodbye."

With a rush of wind, Antony circled around Megamind in a thin line, and then sped off at the speed of light to who-knows-where.

"Let's go. I want to find Eboni as soon as possible", Annabelle said. She lifted up the splintery wood with a creak. There was pitch blackness down as far as the eyes could see.

"How far down is it?" Megamind wondered.

He couldn't say anything else, for his thoughts were drowned out by his own screams.

oooooooooo

A/N Lol, "stop talking about my butt." XD I have no idea where the crud that came from! Just so ya know, we're geting to the JUICY stuff, here! Our first real mission in gathering a more highly protected Rebel!

Also...is the Voodoo Lady trustable?

Are there going to be nightmarish demon forms waiting to tug the Rebels into the nightmare world?

Is it slightly retarded the way I ask these questions that are SUPPOSED to build suspense, but don't? X[ I'm weird!

And... just one more question. Imagine how awesome Bleu Leather would be if it were on Xbox Kinect? I can only daydream, tho...


	20. Chapter 20

Bleu Leather

Chapter 20

They were sliding.

And it was a long slide. Twisty too. How many angles and sharp turns were there?

Megamind wanted it to stop. He had fallen into an awkward position in the tube slide, and he wasn't just wasn't sliding in the right way. His spine was bent in a C.

Finally he tumbled out onto icy tile. His head banged painfully on the floor, and he cried out in agony.

As soon as his eyes stopped being crooked, Megamind took in his surroundings. If they were anywhere, it was pitch black.

The floor opened, and he fell. But he did not fall with Megan and Annabelle.

This must've been what Antony had told them about.

Spiders…

* * *

><p>Annabelle hadn't the slightest notion of what was going on. When she had fallen, she only felt something soft and fluffy.<p>

She faceplanted on it. It smelled like smoke.

And then she realized that her helmet had fallen off. She raised herself up and found it a few feet away from her.

Standing up, Annabelle found herself in what looked like…

Oh no.

_Liar. _

_Liar. _

_Liar…_

"Who said that?" Annabelle demanded. She tried not to squeak her voice. Barely anything had happened, and she was already starting to feel scared.

_Liar…_

Annabelle wove inbetween the curls and tendrils of the black smoke. Some of the smoke was tainted red. Sometimes it was white.

And then she beheld a twisted, nightmarish sight she could not describe.

It was the palace. _Her_ palace. But not as she remembered it.

It looked evil. Steampunk. Not at all like the real castle, which was turquoise and gold and white.

Annabelle thought hard. This hunted labyrinth was supposed to be a puzzle. Maybe she had to go through the palace, because there was black and gray nothingness as far as the eye could see.

She sprinted for it so that nothing further could happen to her. There was no telling what was lurking in this twisted world of magic, despair, and paranormal.

* * *

><p>It was too much.<p>

Just too much…

Megan's fear world was just like a horrendous nightmare. She was surrounded by fire. Fire of all colors.

And the person fueling it was a demon form of none other than Aidan himself.

Megan had heard of these. They were called Shadows. Everyone had one. They were terrifying monsters, most of the time they were in their dark forms which looked like they were completely pitch black all over, except for their eyes which could be neon pink or flaming red.

When they really wanted to scare, though, they morphed into something no one had ever been able to describe. They looked exactly like you, only worse.

They could have gouged eyes, dripping in blood, and as replacements had sharply cut gems jammed into the sockets. They would sometimes be covered in equally bloody bandages, tattered and dirty. The clothes they wore would be the same as the ones you were currently wearing, only stained scarlet in some places and ripped and torn to rags. Some even had objects impaled into their flesh that had something to do with the real person's recent life, whether it be a pair of earbuds or a rusty skewer.

The Shadows belonged to anything evil and monstrous. That meant they were all slaves to Narcissa.

The worst part was that the Shadows could impersonate their corresponding people perfectly. It could cause mayhem if used under extreme circumstances.

Aidan's Shadow was…

Oh no.

No, no, no…

"Just think about the possibilities, Megan my dear!" He kept saying. "Come and join us as a Shadow. We could do many things. You could be my little darkling!"

"NO!" Megan screamed in protest.

And then she ran. Aidan's Shadow trailed her, leaving a stream of angry, forked flames behind him.

He was in his dark from at the moment. Megan didn't want to see what his zombielike form was. Shadows' twisted forms varied depending on goriness. Some would only have trickles of blood from some small cuts and scars, some could even have amputated limbs.

Megan hoped he didn't have an arm hanging off of a marrowy bone. She remembered that one close shave he had during one of the battles waged against Narcissa. His left arm had almost been torn of completely.

"AH!" She stopped short. Her haunted labyrinth was horrific. A barren, desolate wasteland aflame with volcanoes and fire pits Shadow Aidan had created by himself. And the skin on her face felt about to melt with the proximity of the geyser of fire she had just narrowly avoided.

Even with her brain in a muddle, Megan still wondered as ever why there wasn't anything else in her nightmare world except a Shadow Aidan. Was Aidan turning against her the only thing she feared?

No. That couldn't be. But then, she did have a die-hard crush on him.

But still, why? There were other things she feared. The Onyx Dragon. Minerva. Narcissa's beast form she had only dreamed about.

Why just Aidan?

Her thoughts were derailed completely as a pair of scabby, sturdy hands seized her around the middle.

"Get OFF!" She screeched. Shadow Aidan did not let go. She kicked and beat at his hands, but they held tightly to her waist.

"Be my darkling, Megan…" The Shadow whispered in her ear. His breath was hot, and his voice was hoarse. It was not at all like the real Aidan Megan so adored.

The Shadow Aidan lifted Megan in the air with his strong hands still grabbing her skinny waist. He turned her around so she faced him.

Megan wanted to close her eyes, but she couldn't.

She wanted to turn away and give a horrific scream, but she couldn't.

She just couldn't.

The Shadow was morphing from his dark form into…

He looked like a hideous, grotesque, revolting _monster._ He was smiling a wicked, psychotic smile that showed yellow teeth, which was not at all how the real Aidans' looked like. His eyes sockets had blood streaming out from them and dribbling down his face, for in the place of his normal sunflower eyes were two sharp, severe topazes jammed into the sockets. His ears were more pointed than they should have been. His trench coat was ragged and ripped to shreds. His hair was aflame with ravenous, scalding blue fire.

Around his elipse-shaped waist was a bloody bandage with a blackened rose tucked into the filthy fabric.

And there was an open, unstitched gash that marred his pale forehead.

Blood, everywhere.

Megan found her voice box where it had been hiding in La-La Land.

She uttered a terrific scream in horror. The Shadow Aidan was worse than she imagined, even without an amputated limb.

"Darkling!"

"GET AWAY FROM ME, YOU PSCYCHO!"

Megan wriggled free of the crazed Shadow's grip. She fell to the dehydrated, cracked dirt, and clambered back up to make her getaway. She dodged the geysers of blistering fire and the rivers of boiling, bubbling orange lava to get as far away as possible from the Shadow.

How was she to make it through her nightmare labyrinth? She had to figure it out on her own. These puzzles were complicated.

Through her panic, she tried to think. What would unravel this dillemma so she could escape? It had to be something she'd never dream of doing. Something outrageous.

To her, liking Invader Zim was outrageous.

Wait, what did this have to do with a cartoon? There was a demon Aidan following her! This was serious! Was there some sort of ancient heiroglyph in the stone structures that were occasionally found in this desolate wasteland? Did she have to jump into the river of lava and risk her life?

This confused her, and…

Megan stopped short, even though the Shadow was gaining on her.

No. The thought was horrendous. Repulsive. Disgusting!

Did she have to _return feelings_ for that bloody demon Shadow? Gross! Why would a labyrinth put her through that kind of torture? For all she knew, she could become a Shadow herself if she so much as made (UCK) _lip contact_ with that monster. That would be… Megan had no words powerful enough to describe that outcome. Beyond repulsive. Vile multiplied by infinity.

Even though she would loathe herself for this, Megan had to try. She had to think of any and every way to get out and get that Staff from the Voodoo Lady before Narcissa learned about it and beat them to it.

She let the Shadow swish her up from her waist and set her down just a bit too roughly. Her body was held stiff as a board as she tried her best to just cope with this fate. This was rotten luck.

On the other hand, she would've just about died if the real Aidan had swept her off her feet like that.

"Darkling… be my darkling…" The idiot demon kept repeating himself. Thankfully, he had switched back to his dark form instead of setting his shifty yellow topazes dripping with blood in Megan's pure smooth sapphire Invader Zim-resembling eyes. His eyes were now squinty and standing out on a midnight black body. The pink slits started into Megan's face with a plastic smiled glued onto it.

"Well!" The fairy readhead squeaked. "I'm your darkling, then!"

"Excellent…" The Shadow purred. Megan flinched. The purr sounded exactly like a sound Aidan would've made. Megan imagined the real Aidan for a moment growling lowly and purring in her ear…

She couldn't. First of all, it made her knees buckle, and second, she had to experiment with escape strategies to get to the Voodoo Lady.

"Yes! You are my…darkler!" Megan thought quickly. Darkler sounded cheesy, though.

The Shadow didn't seem to care.

"Yes… Darkler is quite attractive. Quite", The Shadow commented. Megan still tried to stretch her fake smile wider, but her lips were hurting. Besides, the Shadow probably couldn't tell the difference between a genuine smile and a fake one, that's how stupid they could get sometimes. Megan was forcing herself to try to feel for this demon Aidan, but it was difficult. She was willing to do it if it meant a way out, but it was hard.

And was it her, or was the Shadow holding her closer… tighter?

Oh no…

_Let's get this over with now._

"I love you!" Megan said quickly, and not meaning it whatsoever.

She puckered up and squeezed her eyes shut in disgust.

She kissed the Shadow dispassionately. He was still in his dark from, so she had to guess where his chapped lips were. Luckily, and unluckily, she guessed right, and got a mouthful of halitosis.

Trying not to turn green and maintaining a lovestruck expression for the Shadow, she broke apart. She softened her lips ever so slightly so it didn't seem like a forced kiss.

_Wait… scratch that, he can't tell the difference, the dim-witted fool. _

"Wonderful…" The Shadow murmured.

"WONDERFUL!"

Megan looked down at herself.

Blackness was spreading like the plague across her legs.

* * *

><p>Dark. Musty, and rancid. Moldy…<p>

This set the mood for what Megamind feared the most. He had never even told Minion about these fears he had deep inside him. They were too irrational. His reputation would be on the line if this feeling he had was ever uncovered.

Megamind sat up. He had faceplanted on the carpet that smelled like fish, and he immediately lifted his face away from it. There was an obvious reason why he hated rotten fish smell, or eating fish. It sickened him.

Megamind took in his nightmare world through the leather around his eyes. It was just how he expected it to be.

It looked like Tim Burton had thrown up on this labyrinth. It resembled an old, cliché mansion from the 1900's. Everywhere, there were enormous cobwebs and countless mice and rats squirreling around that could be anywhere. The paintings hung upon the walls were ghostly, and it was quiet as a tomb in there. It only added to the eeriness, and it was haunting.

Megamind was sure the only small noise around was his own heart hammering inside his chest. He suspected at any moment that something—_some demon_—would lunge at him and give him a heart attack.

Despite his terror, Megamind tried to clear his blue head. The nightmarish essence of the labyrinth was only to prevent people from thinking straight and solving the puzzle to get out alive. For that, rationality was critical.

Megamind dug down deep and observed from a safe range. Maybe there were hidden passageways interwoven in the moldy walls covered in prune wallpaper. Maybe he had to face ghosts and other creatures that stood unnamed.

He plastered his navy cape around his bare chest, for it was extremely cold in this room. He suspected nothing less. Why did somthig so predictable scare him so much?

Was it… there was that one time…

He had been twelve years old, and he still remembered the nightmare. Etched in his mind for eternity, it was. Powerful. He didn't know what it meant. It made him wake up in tears.

This reminded him of the twisted dream. Painful.

Nothing seemed of interest in this room, even after Megamind had scoured it for twenty whole minutes finding anything that would give him clues to find a way out of here.

He cautiously took a step up the nearby staircase with handrails made of ebony blacker than night, and pointed edges that could cut skin.

The bottom dropped out of his stomach. Immediately, he was launched into the air without warning, and straight at the ceiling.

Except he didn't hit the ceiling.

Instead, he found himself not on the stairs, but in a different room entirely.

The furniture was on the ceiling, chandeliers sprouted up from the floor, and Megamind didn't know which way was up anymore. Gravity seemed to only be pulling on his cape, and nothing else.

What was in this room? Megamind would have to find out.

Speak of the devil. He stepped on a painting hung on the floor/ceiling and fell right through it.

* * *

><p>She punched another one in the face. Then in the nose. Then a double jump kick knocked two of them out.<p>

There were Shadows everywhere! Annabelle saw shadows of her mother and father, the chambermaids, scullery boys, even the royal chefs.

"AAGH!" She screamed as a slimy substance seized her around the waist. It dragged her across the cold, gray stone floor.

Time to face her Shadow again.

"I am not going to marry Shadow Whitney!" Annabelle screeched. "I'm not, I'm not, I'm not!"

"Shut up, pitiful cloudsprite!" the Shadow Annabelle ordered. "Don't provoke me, or I'll morph!"

Annabelle ignored this. What could be so scary about a Shadow morphing? It shouldn't be so bad.

"You_ will_ follow my orders, and you _will_ marry Shadow Whitney!" the dark Annabelle said, tugging on the tentacle covered in slime that she had somehow gotten.

Annabelle struggled. "Rgh! Why don't you marry Shadow Whitney? Why don't Shadows fall in love with other Shadows?"

"Because our Light correspondent partners appeal much more."

Annabelle felt a hot rage bubble inside her. If the Shadows triumphed, Shadow Annabelle would surely seduce the true Whitney into falling in love with her, and marrying her when she hit sixteen.

That was not about to happen. Not on her watch.

Annabelle was dragged further and further away from the hubbub that only jest blocked her exit, and down into the dungeon. She recognized the corridor, even if it was an otherworldly one.

"Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow, stop it! Ow!" Annabelle's Shadow correspondent was pulling her down the steep rock stairs, and it hurt her backside tremendously. No surprise, the Shadow could care much less.

"Whitney. Now."

The Shadow thrust Annabelle into a small dungeon, the puckering tentacle slithering off with a trail of slime.

The door slammed. All was dark.

Except for two fluorescent pink eyes hovering in the darkness.

"Annabelle… you have come at last…"

* * *

><p>Two droplets of blood leaked out from the small wound where the rat had bit him. Megamind squeezed out more blood so he would get rid of any toxins it might've injected into his body. All he had been doing was rummaging through moldy coffers looking for a sign of hope, and then something stung his hand through his thin leather glove. He yanked his hand back out, and saw that the glove had a small bloodstain on it. A rat scurried out of the box, and off into the darkness.<p>

As much as Megamind didn't want to risk rabies, he hated squeezing blood out of his hand purposly. It was gruesome, even for a small wound. Plus, it seemed like he had lost enough blood already.

Megamind stood up to find another clue. He ran a finger slowly across his stitched scar slashed angrily on his right breast. It was still an open scab, still that dark reddish color.

He wondered if it would ever heal properly.

And he wondered if the way out of here was through corresponding paintings like the one he had fallen through. That must be it. It was the only way, because Megamind had gone through every possibility of escape in his head with no avail except this option.

And then another feeling had started to worm its way through, even though he couldn't think about it right now. It made his knees buckle. It made his heart thud. It made his ears and cheeks turn and interesting color of pink.

He couldn't resist daydreaming about Roxanne, even now when he had more serious matter to deal with. He honestly couldn't help it. He couldn't necessarily go four hours without her until he started to get all dreamy and irrational. She was the best thing that ever happened to him. Who else but her would love an alien? She was the only human woman that did. The first one. And Megamind felt exceedingly lucky to have a very humanoid physiology that made him compatible with her. No abnormalities, just severe reactions to caffeine and a slightly higher body temperature than most people.

Sometimes he even wondered if it was his alien heritage that made him so… _attractive._ Nothing he'd brag about, but _man._ He had to admit, it was the truth. He was incredibly charming. And his thinness, no matter how anorexic was also pretty fetching in a right way. Not to mention his compatibility with leather and spikes, his bad boy side, and ability to be very romantic when he wanted to be.

Agh, there he went, lost in the world of daydreams again. He had to escape from his nightmare world. The sooner he got the Staff, the sooner he could return to Roxanne.

Megamind pressed on, more eager than ever to find a way out. What were the basic components of the painting he was in? He probably needed to find other paintings that shared the same elements. In just might lead him out, and free.

But as he kept walking, he heard something… something faint, but it was still there. His keen ears could sense it.

It sounded like footsteps. Little tiny footsteps that could belong to anyone.

Or could they? The even sounded familiar.

Megamind clapped his bloody hand to his mouth.

He thought he told her to stay with Eckere! Megamind only knew Roxanne's footsteps distinctly. He kept this a secret from her, for it was kind of awkward to know a person by their simple footsteps.

"R…Roxanne?" Megamind stuttered. It might not even be Roxanne, he suddenly realized. This nightmare world was freaky and unpredictable just like his imagination when it ran wild. It didn't help that he had a twenty-year history of being evil and dedicated to darkness. It made his world scarier. It could be some grotesque creature impersonating Roxanne. It must've been an excellent impersontation, because Megamind had taken Roxanne's footsteps to literally mathematical levels in terms of the ratio between steps.

"Who's there?" Megamind demanded, this time with a threatening undertone.

"Oh my God… Megamind, is that you?"

"Roxanne!" A sliver of hope rose in Megamind's throat, though he still kept his guard up to be safe. "Where are you?"

"Up here! By the stairs!"

Megamind found the Tim Burtonized staircase and scaled it impossibly quickly. He came to a corridor that branched out into two thin passageways lined with cobwebs and goulish paintings.

There was a tiny, shivering, huddled figure by a recess in the wall Megamind had almost overlooked. He approached it with caution. If it was a grotesque creature instead of his darling, it ought to be lunging at him by now.

"Roxanne?" Megamind's voice was peppered with fear. His legs started to shudder slightly. The figure looked so frail.

"Megamind…"

Megamind was no longer terrified. He was more worried sick. He was positive it was Roxanne.

"Roxanne, dear, come into the light."

The figure moved and crawled into the dim light when Megamind saw her. Roxanne's face was pale with horror, all the glow and cheer completely washed out. He eyes had even lost the shine, and the blue seemed duller than normal.

Megamind immidiately keeled over to his knees and enveloped Roxanne in a hug. She was cold and still shivering. It compelled him to hug her tighter, and he swore to himself he would get vengeance on the beast that had wreaked this terror over her.

Megamind came apart form her just enough to look her in the eyes. It almost brought him to tears the way they were as wide as plates, looking ghostly and haunted.

"Look at me Roxanne, I'm right here. What happened to you? Are you alright?"

Roxanne's breath started to speed up.

"I… I don't really know what happened…" she whispered, her voice weak. "Eckere just glitched and started to play around with the buttons on her arms, and I ended up right here… she must've stayed in Annabelle's room…"

Megamind's eyes widened. The only way he could describe this happening was that she had been teleported somehow. But how? And how here?

"But how did you get here?" Megamind murmured softly to calm her down.

"I don't know. Maybe we share same fears…" Roxanne guessed, her eyes as sober as ever. The way she was looking into his eyes sent Megamind's heart shattering.

"Well you can calm down now, darling…" Megamind whispered, this time with a sultry undertone to make her feel better.

"I'm right here, and I am never letting you go."

Megamind made his point by softly, sweetly pressing his lips on hers. She responded straight away, wrapping her arms comfortingly around his blue-skinned chest. This instantly soothed her, the way her peach skin begn to tingle pleasantly on his. Megamind was feeling likewise, a rush of ecstasy going through him once again, and he forgot all about the situation they were in. He instead was focused on kissing her, and it gradually got more passionate as Roxanne calmed down even more.

Plus, there was one thing Megamind had been wanting to try on her.

With every prod of her lips, Megamind moaned softly into her mouth. This added more fuel to the fire, and Roxanne slid her hands over Megamind's blue skin even more, pulling herself closer.

Megamind slipped off his gloves easily, and started to stroke the bare skin she had between her cropped top and skirt. This made an even stronger tingle, and soon Megamind was shivering with happiness. Literally.

What caused this pleasant tingle? Roxanne wondered. Was it due to the fact that Megamind was an alien? Was it due to the fact that they both loved each other more than they could love anyone else?

Roxanne didn't really want to find out. She was enjoying it far too much.

Soon, Megamind had his lips nestled and pecking tiny kisses all along her neck. When he got to her ear, he purred into it, and Roxanne felt her legs go boneless. Even though he was majorly seducing her, he could feel blood rushing to his face and turning it purple. It prickled, too. In an amazing way.

Or was that just Roxanne's hand slithering up his neck?

Ohh… it felt good…

He growled lowly into her ear. Roxanne crashed her lips against his just to moan even more into his mouth.

Megamind wanted to keep kissing Roxanne…

But they needed to find a way out. Darn it.

Megamind sucked on her lips a little more, then finaly was able to break the kiss. He felt woozy.

"I think that benifitted you more than you intended for me", Roxanne giggled when she saw the dazed look strewn upon his face. It was even more endearing to glimpse the shade of purple and pink that had spread on his angular cheekbones to the tips of his shapely ears.

"I think so…" he moaned. With a quick shake of his head, he tried to turn serious again. He helped Roxanne stand up from the cruddy carpet, glad that the normal glow had returned to her skin and was no longer pallid and ghostlike.

"So have you found a way out of your nightmare world yet?" Roxanne asked, afraid to know the answer.

"I'm pretty sure", Megamind said. "I fell through a painting not very long ago. Then I tried stepping through another painting, and it worked again. If I find the right pattern of paintings, I think we could work our way out of here."

"Wait, so I'm in a… _painting?_" Roxanne asked, confused.

"Yes. My mind must be insane. It's probably due to the fact that I forced it to be creepy when I converted to being evil, and that went on for twenty-some years. I regret that now…"

"Well, if you knew we were going to end up in a magical other-realm, I would have blamed you", Roxanne said.

Megamind was about to answer back…

When something stung him in the side.

"What the—"

Then he toppled over, suddenly in mortal pain. Roxanne screamed.

There was a long, slender, sharp arrow protruding from his pelvis. Trickles of blood were pouring out of it grotesquely; more blood than normal.

"I need to pull this thing out!" Roxanne screeched. "Megamind—stop squirming…"

"I'm trying…" He whimpered. "IT HURTS!"

Megamind was curled up into a fetal position, and shuddering severely, writhing about. Why did a simple arrow hurt so much?

His eyes snapped open.

It was poisoned.

"Got it!" Roxanne wrenched the arrow out of Megamind. It had only been lodged in his blue flesh a little way in, but when she tried to pull it out…the skin resisted. It puckered. As if it didn't want the arrow to be pulled out at all.

"OH MY GOD."

More blood started to dribble out of the wound the arrow had made in Megamind's side.

Except it started to froth and bubble unnaturally. Megamind screamed when he saw it himself. When he tried to stop the blood, it only leaked out between his fingers and bubbled out onto the carpet. The sound the scarlet liquid made as the bubbles popped sounded like boiling water.

"Roxanne… what's happening to me…" Megamind murmured as his eyes started to roll back in his head. The blue eyelids started to flutter.

"Megamind, NO!"

Megamind's chest stopped moving.

"NO!"

Roxanne's eyes were overflowing with tears. Megamind had died before her very eyes.

That was it. Dead.

Roxanne briefly looked up from Megamind's lifeless body.

A ravenous, evil cackle broke through the room like shattered glass.

"Ah, it was only a matter of time!" A voice sniggered.

"Only a matter of time…" Another voice agreed.

A strangled cry escaped Roxanne's throat.

The two voices were twisted versions of Megamind's and her own.

"Who shot that arrow?" Roxanne screamed with fury.

"YOU KILLED MY BOYFRIEND!"

There was no answer for a moment.

"Oh! We killed him?" The feminine voice like Roxanne's said with fake innocence.

"…Or did we?" The disembodied Megamind duplicate growled ominously.

Roxanne felt a sticky substance around her waist, and then she was yanked sharply down the stairs.

She heard Megamind yelling, "What? What happened?"

At first she thought it was the duplicate, but then she stole a glance behind herself.

Roxanne intook her breath sharply. Megamind had reawakened, his eyes open and alert once more.

So he was alive!

Roxanne felt her back slam against a wall down the stairs. The same sticky substance that had encirled her waist now cocooned her entire body except her head. Turning it just little to her right, she glimpsed Megamind plastered against the wall as well, wrapped in what looked like…

Spider silk. And he was squeezing his eyes shut, breathing heavily and looking horrified that he was encased in a product of spiders.

_Oh no… he has arachniphobia! _

"Megamind, are you alright?"

"Do…I…look…alright?" Megamind answered taking a breath inbetween each word.

"You most definitely do not look alright", Roxanne's warped voice suddenly interjected. When Megamind looked to his left, and Roxanne shook her head to indiacte she didn't say it, he looked honestly spooked.

"Look at your shadows upon the wall…" Megamind's other voice rasped. But… they were plastered _against_ a wall. How could…

Megamind and Roxanne looked. Their shadows were there, but they looked unnatural. And they were standing; not encased in spider silk.

Roxanne's unearthly shadow even looked Tim Burtonized, and it was only a simple outline of herself. Megamind's looked equally as ominous.

"I have excellent aim, don't I?" Megamind's shadow rasped. As the shadow talked, it made exaggerated gestures to show that he specifically was talking.

"You shot that arrow at me…" The real Megamind snarled. He tried to wriggle out of the cocoon of spider silk, but it was of no avail.

"Was it poisoned?"

"Most definitely", The shadow crooned devilishly. Megamind's and Roxanne's shadows switched places so that both had each other's shadows.

"In a matter of one day", Roxanne's shadow began, "you join us as a spirit. We'll be glad to see you when you die."

Megamind made a look halfway between horrified and revolted. Roxanne gasped sharply.

He was going to die after all...

"Why… why would you do this…" Megamind growled even more meanacingly. It was his growl paired along with a poisonous glare that he only used when he was livid. His face was flushing purple with anger.

"Because we can. Because we choose to."

"Narcissa will be most pleased", Megamind's shadow purred.

And then both shadows unpeeled from the wall and in the next second, were nose to nose with Megamind and Roxanne.

Megamind looked at the Shadow Roxanne. Roxanne looked at the Shadow Megamind. They both had pink slits for eyes.

Megamind saw behind Shadow Roxanne. Eight long, spindly spider legs sprouted from its back, and that's what held it up face to face with him.

Shadow Megamind was the same.

Megamind's breath quickened with fear, and then contorted in rage. "You take orders from Narcissa?" He said Narcissa's name as if it pained him to.

"Yes. Avidly", Megamind's Shadow said.

It tickled underneath Roxanne's chin. It's fingers were clawlike and very sharp.

"DON'T YOU TOUCH HER!" Megamind boomed. The Shadow Roxanne leaned forward, and Megamind felt cold lips on his.

"MPH! AUGH! Disgusting!" The blue alien spat when he jerked free of the unexpected kiss.

"Why did you DO that?"

"Shadows are incompatible with other Shadows", The dark Megamind said, answering his Light twin.

"And I'll gladly take this little doll here…"

"GET OFF OF HER!"

But before anyhting else could be said, The Shadows transformed.

"AAAH!"

The Shadow Roxanne was horrendous. Instead of beautiful sky eyes, she had two sparkling aquamarines jammed straight into the sockets, blood streaming out either side. Her hair was wild, and looked more like a bird's nest than chocolate. Her clothes were the same as the real Roxanne's, but bloodstained darkly, and raggedy.

Just to squeeze more terror out of Megamind, the Shadow Roxanne turned to her side.

There really were eight sharp spider legs protruding grotesquely from her back, dark scarlet fluid coating the source from where they sprouted.

The Shadow Megamind was even worse. Circular lime emeralds, cut and polished were jammed clear into the sockets much like Roxanne's Shadow. His chest was covered in bruises and bitemarks, the scar on the right side open wide and bleeding. There were several more open scars, and a bandage stained red across his torso. A burgundy rose was entwined in the fabric, wilting petals looking dank.

He was wielding a copy of Narcissa's knife. Both his arms had sharp barbs embedded in the flesh.

The naiad chopstick.

It impaled clear through his left arm.

Megamind couldn't help it any longer.

He screamed. It was horrifying. His demon self… his mind must've been insane.

"What do you think of that, Johnny?" Shadow Roxanne crooned. Two of her unearthly spider legs lifted from the ground and stabbed him right over the heart. Luckily, it only plucked at his skin, but hurt nonetheless.

Those leg tips had to be poisoned also.

Megamind felt as if a bottle of bleach had been overturned on him.

"MEGAMIND!" Roxanne screeched.

White steam began to emitt from beneath the spider silk.

Then the silk parted.

Megamind dared not look down at himself, because his blue skin was bubbling.

* * *

><p>AN OH NOES! MEGS IS GETTING TORTURED! DON'T WORRY MEGAMIND! I'LL SAVE YOUUUUUU! XD I'm too in love with this cartoon...

And yeah, I know, I'M BEING SO MEAN TO HIM! (runs away from vengeful fangirls with duplicates of Megamind's De-Gun in hand) But it ads suspense to the storyline. Although it was very painful to make Megamind "die" even if it was only briefly he stopped breathing. I LUV HIM! Roxanne is so dang lucky...

And now something brings me to a new topic. This is the last prewritten chapter I have, so that means I won't be updating every day anymore.

Buuuut... that means there is more time between chapters to hold polls, and so I can get more reviews! That'll give you guys more time to catch up with the whole plot.

Except chapter 21 is almost done, so I could update in maybe a few days... but from then on it'll take at least a few weeks to update. If it takes longer, by NO means does it mean that I have abandoned this wonderful story! I don't abandon my stories!

Catch ya on the flipside ;)

Megamindluv4918


	21. Chapter 21

Heads up! This is not a prewritten chapter just because the last one I posted was yesterday. I was just really close to finishing this one when I posted the last one. In other words, this chapter is hot off the press! And that also means it may have some typos I might've overlooked. But I doubt it.

Have fun with the VOODOO LADY! :D

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><p>Bleu Leather<p>

Chapter 21

What a state.

Megan was a half-Shadow. Annabelle had been beaten to a pulp. Megamind was marred with the wound from the arrow, and the ugly patch of skin on his torso that looked like it had been burnt.

It itched. And Roxanne was the only one that had gotten away with only a few bruises.

"Megamind, stop scratching that rash. It's going to get worse."

" It itches, it itches, it itches!" he whined to his girlfriend, and tried to scratch again. Roxanne took hold of his skinny wrist before he could, and examined the skin further.

It wasn't as bad as anyone would think, but it was still pretty bad. The skin was purple in some places, and red in others. The burnt patch was all bumpy and dry now that it had oxidized.

"I'm going to ask Annabelle to give me a shirt. This skin is all… rgh, it's ugly!" Megamind exclaimed in disgust. He yanked his cape across his chest to hide the burn that had become uglier because of the scar that was right next to it. Roxanne gave him a compassionate look through her sky eyes thatindicated she was extremely sorry for the pain he had endured.

Those Shadows had ben horrendous to both of them. They had freaked them both out with their zombie forms, and at one point, had taken out both the gems in their eyes.

Megamind never wanted to see another rotted optic nerve in his life. Nor did he want another freakish spider leg to fry his previously perfect skin down to the dermis.

He remembered the time he had almost burst with rage when his Shadow tried that on Roxanne.

It only took a lift of the spindly black leg to set him off. He found a strength he didn't know he had, and finally broke out of the durable spider silk only to endure another agonizing sting of the poison atop his breastbone.

And then only to know that he was to die in a matter of a day from a poisoned arrow?

Megamind was aghast.

He forgot all about the shirt he wanted to ask Annabelle for. He gave Roxanne a sober look through his lurid eyes.

"We can hopefully ask the Voodoo Lady for help. She just might be able to… heal your…"

Roxanne's voice cracked off and she started sobbing. She buried her face in the supple blue skin beneath Megamind's chin. He felt warm tears trickle down his chest, and pretty soon, he was crying as well.

Megamind didn't want to die. And so quickly. There had been many close shaves, but this time it was official. Harmful poison had been introduced to his body; a poison that would kill him in only a matter of time.

He hugged Roxanne close to himself. It might be the last time they would see each other again if he could not get help soon.

So he came a little ways apart from the embrace. More tears trickled down from his green orbs when he saw Roxanne's devastated look. Her cheeks glistened with her crystal tears.

So Megmind leaned forward and kissed her. He kissed her sweetly, but sadly. It would most likely be one of the last kisses they shared if he died.

If air weren't a necessity, he could kiss Roxanne's lips forever. They were so soft and they tasted sweeter than anything. An he thought Roxanne was the most beautiful thing in all creation. And that, coming from the last alien of his kind, was a lot. Roxanne was probably the only one Megamind could ever love.

He had only experienced it for… a month.

Reluctantly, Megamind broke the kiss. He gently brushed his long, square thumb along Roxanne's cheekbone to wipe away the tears she had been crying. Why did this have to happen?

Why?

"Uhm…" Megan interrupted the couple's moment hesitantly. "If I may, please… we should start looking for the Voodo Lady before she—"

And suddenly Megan flashed again. First she was a Shadow. Then she was herself. Then the dark form, and back to herself again. She winced as if she was been electrocuted. "I can't believe I—NAUGH!—kissed that Shadow Aidan", Megan said, flashing to a Shadow again. She still had that aftertaste of hot blood, and rancid meat. The blood part tasted like a rusty spoon. The meat part was worse.

"You shouldn't have done that", Annabelle said from next to her friend. Megan looked over at her. Her left eyes was swollen to a quarter of its size. Purple blood was still left at the corner of her white lips where she had been punched. Half her hair had been sheared off, so now it only came to her shoulderblades.

"I need to stop being forgetful, because I knew the results of being partnerized with a Shadow. Good thing I'm only a—ARRGHH!—half Shadow. You would've otherwise lost me", Megan said inbetween flashes.

"Well, we don't need that", Megamind sniffed, trying madly to wipe away the trails of tears left upon his face.

"No. In fact, that would've ben the worst possible fate you could have. The whole lot of you."

The voice rang out from nowhere. Megamind got a bit startled, and he held Roxanne a little closer to protect her. Annabelle veered her head in the direction of the voice and tilted her faintly lilac ears so that they would pick up the sound further.

And then she appeared.

"Hello, Rebels", The Voodoo Lady crooned. Megamind gasped a bit at the sight of her. She looked quite eccentric. She was a black woman with short, curly hair that was tied up in the back with a unique-looking hairpeice with a glistening amethyst on the top. She was dressed almost entireley in purple. The whole bit was on with her: Gloves, strapless bodice with pinstripes, a miniskirt that was mostly black, and lilac stockings that finished off with chunky golden heels.

"You… you are the Voodoo Lady, right?" Megan murmured.

"Who else would I be?"

"I don't trust you."

The woman smirked as if this didn't bother her. Then, as if on cue, Megan flashed into a Shadow and back again, and rather painfully.

"Oh, I've seen this before", she tok note of Megan's state, and of everyone else's states.

"Come along, and I will help you all."

Megamind still hung back, clutching onto Roxanne. Something about this doctress just didn't seem right to him. There was just a knowing glint that caught in her pastel green eyes sometimes that seemed to warn him about something he could not place. This woman semed iffy.

But then again, they needed that Staff.

Where was it, anyway?

"Come along, Megamind. You too, Roxy. That Shadow poisoning looks severe beyond normal repair",the Voodoo Lady purred. There was something almost seductive about her airy tone.

"Where are we going, exactly?" Megamind asked, finding his voice at last. He let go of Roxanne to follow the doctress across the barren room they had fallen into when they had overcome their nightmare worlds. It didn't even look like a room. It looked spectral; as if they were nowhere at all.

So where were they going?

The Voodoo Lady, as if she could se right through Megamind, suddenly had a staff in her hand seeming to come from thin air.

In fact… it was probably the Staff itself.

The woman turned around, her body language suggesting that she was showing the Staff off. It was almost teasing; tempting.

The Staff was crafted to excellent beauty. It was long and streamlined, with blue feathered snakes coiling up around the neck. Atop the maple wood was a purple orb. Taking a closer look, Megamind saw that it was actually purple smoke swirling aroud the inside of the smooth, clear glass as if it desperately wanted to escape.

"You require this, do you not?" The doctress asked in her indefinable accent like flawless smooth chocolate. She waved the Staff particularly in Megamind's face almost like a childish game of keep-away. He drew back, now with an annoyed expression hovering over his thin eyebrows.

"I believe so…" Megamind trailed off. Glancing to his left, the blue genius glimpsed Annabelle trying to disguise a venomous look in her violet eyes.

Then, as if she seriously couldn't hold back her thoughts, music suddenly blared out of her helmet. She winced as a violin solo started to play…

_When the devil is too busy _

_And death's a bit too much _

_They call on me, by name you see- _

CLONK. Her helmet fell to the floor with a tremendous clatter as she banged it rather harshly to get it to shut up. She took in a deep breath through gritted teeth, and then applied a plastic smile to her white face.

"Dreadfully sorry about that…"

The Voodoo Lady eyed Annabelle with a glare that could send chills down a monster's spine. Yet she maintained her tough composure.

With a flourish she turned around,and shaped long rectangle in the air with the Staff. Then she traced a circle around in the middle, and a splintery purple door appeared out of nowhere. She opened it, and it protested with a loud, high squeal.

"Come inside, and settle down", The Voodoo Lady persuaded, putting both her arms around Megamind and Roxanne. Megan and Annabelle followed her lead inside what would probably be her chamber.

She pushed Megamind and Roxanne suddenly forward, and with a snap of her bony fingers, the room came to life with light.

Megamind gazed upon the room which was like something out of a fairytale. It was small, but almost every inch of the walls were covered with cool-colored tapestries and shrunken heads.

And that was only a short corridor. Where it really seemed to focus was around a platform that Megamind assumed was where she held tarot card readings and séances. A long, sleek table beheld what seemed like stacks upon stacks of potions and strange mixtures. Another shelf had old-looking spellbooks and odd, sometimes disgusting ingredients that couldn't even be named.

What kind of scared Megamind were the voodoo dolls, and spiritual artifacts in miscellaneous places all around.

He even spotted some dolls that looked like himself, Roxanne, Annabelle, and Megan. On the left side of each of the stuffed chests were little pieces of red fabric that marked where their hearts were.

A cluster of pins was awfully close by them. Megamind shuddered. If you stuck a pin in a voodoo doll, the person it looked like would die if it was through the little fabric heart, simple as that. And so sudden.

"Come. Would any of you girls like some tea? You lovely couple, would you like some chardonnay?"

"Tea", All four of them answered at once in unison. Megamind still clearly remembered Antony's warning to take the tea if the Voodoo Lady offered any to them.

And then the reason dawned on him at once. If this doctress was anything underhanded, she would probably tempt her victims with chardonnay, and most likely wind them up drunken and with no sense of what they were agreeing to. That was quite clever.

The Voodoo Lady gazed at the four. "Wise choice. I can see you're not at all very gullible, Megamind", she purred.

"How did you—"

"Let's just say I'm sort of gifted in the telepathy field", she said with a flirtatious wink. Megamind was near gagging point as she did so. Female villains always casted such a wide net.

The doctress snaked over to her enormous table of mysterious concoctions. Almost immediately, she snatched up a small vial filled with ghostly green glowing liquid.

"Unwrap that cape, Megamind. We don't want to add more fuel to the poison by letting that scald stay on your torso", she ordered. Megamind kept his cape tightly wrapped around himself, thought he didn't know why. Maybe it was due to the state of the burn that was even slowly getting worse underneath the fabric.

But it was probably for the best anyway.

With a sigh of defeat, the cape fluttered away from his chest. Even Megamind was shocked by how the maladie had worsened.

He kept his hand clapped over his mouth to keep from making sick noises. The previously small bumps that only itched had turned into cysts shining with unidentafiable fluid. And now they burned.

The humiliated blue alien quickly scrambled to envelope his midsection in his cape again. Roxanne, Annabelle, and Megan all looked kind of green in the face. He was exeedingly ashamed, and magenta blush started to slither up his whole face.

"Oh dear, it's worse than I thought", the Voodoo Lady murmured. She yanked the cork out from the vial she held, opened up Megamind's cape, and thrust the contents onto his skin.

There was a sickening sizzling noise as it contacted with his skin.

"OWWW!" Megamind howled as he stumbled backwards onto the ground with searing pain swirling through his system. It only lasted a second, though.

Then he peeled away the cape and his skin was a pearly robin-egg blue once again.

"Well, what did you expect, ointment?" the doctress exclaimed, emphasizing that that had been no regular treatment.

Megamind stood up, but then immediately put a hand to his skinny pelvis in pain. He deflated. Even if this Voodoo Lady was incredibly powerful, she probably didn't have an antidote for death.

"Megamind, dear, there is no antidote for death. But there is one for imminent death", the doctress explained, reading his mind again.

"Give it to me…please?" the alien said immediately. He couldn't disguise the desperate tone in his voice. He gave a sober look at Annabelle, Megan and Roxanne.

But mostly at Roxanne. And she mirrored him, both anticipating that there was some tiny spark of hope that he could be cured.

Without a word, the woman waved the Staff in front of a cabinet reaching all the way to the ceiling, and the doors roughly flew open to reveal cauldrons, bottles, vials, and ladles of all sorts.

She pointed her Staff sharply to the other side where the ingredients resided, and almost bumped Megamind's nose. Then she flicked it back on the ground, and random materials floated to the table she stood in front of. Megamind gagged. Among her ingredients was a box of black widows.

"So, your purpose for finding me was to obtain my Staff, was it not?" She asked as she twisted open a flask of sickly brown liquid.

"Yes. And we heard you drive a hard bargain", Roxanne piped up, finding her voice at last. It still took some getting used to to be amid this magical hoopla.

"Oh, right you are Miss Ritchi", the Voodoo Lady affirmed. She tossed what looked like beetle wings inside her small cauldron where she was brewing Megamind's antidote. The blue genius looked like he would rather cuddle a tarantula than take that mixture.

"It will take one offering from each of you to reach my deal. This Staff is quite a powerful thing."

Roxanne was about to say that they were going to use that Staff to defeat Narcissa, but caught herself just in time. She still didn't know whether to trust this woman just yet.

"Be careful what you think, m'dear Roxanne", the doctress crooned, momentarily pausing from sprinkling what looked like pieces of fur inside Megamind's potion. He was starting to turn green as the mixture. Roxanne's jaw stiffened. She kept forgetting about this Voodoo Lady's prying mind.

"I'm sorry, but it's hard to really confide in anyone when so much evil has been happening… I've only just gotten used to being around anything out of a fairytale yesterday."

"I understand, m'dear", the Voodoo Lady sighed smoothly.

Megamind flinched (more like shuddered) when she spat a wad of saliva into his potion. Then she ladled it up and used a funnel to pour the mixture into a flask. After that, she used the Staff to direct some sort of incantation on it, and then handed it to Megamind.

"Use this potion wisely. It will cure any ailment execpt for open wounds and death. And It will take away Megan's half Shadow", she explained. Megamind, sensing no other thing to do, started to bring the bottle to his lips.

"Ah ah ah", the doctress chided gently. "It only works when I am not present. Come, sit and we will discuss the deal I have for you all."

Some unseen force pushed at Megamind's back firmly, and it sent him stumbling for a chair at the Voodoo Lady's table. She seated herself at the flat side of the half-moon shape of it, and her chair automatically scooted in for her. She rested her smooth chin in both her manicured, bony fingers.

"Please hurry up with this, Lady Gaga. I don't know how much longer I'll be able to keep my—AAGH!—Light form intact", Megan said. She flashed betweeen a Shadow and back to herself again, but the Shadow jump lasted longer this time around. Megamind had to grab her by the shoulders to hold down her evil rampage not brought up on her own at all.

"Relax, all of you. It will work better if you relax…" The Voodoo Lady crooned, and with a swoop of her hand, everyone had cups of tea in front of them as she had promised.

"What will work better?" Megamind murmured curiously.

"You will see soon enough.

"But on different matters, why do you all require my Staff?"

The Rebels racked their heads for answers. If she really was an ally of Narcissa, then Megamind didn't want to let loose some information not to be open with people not to be trusted.

So they all erased the very important from their current thinking, in case the Voodoo Lady was scanning their minds at that very moment.

Which made something else come to mind.

"Voodoo Lady?" Megamind asked slowly. "Do you have a real name?"

"Alas, I do not", she said. "But I have given myself one. I am now to be known as Lady Andromeda, and nothing else."

Why was Megamind not surprised? She had to come up with something as mysterious as Andromeda.

"So Adromeda, we need to make that deal, and the reason why we need your Staff is—"

"I know why", she said. Andromeda added a wink of her long lashes for good measure. Megamind almost choked on his tea, which he also hoped was not drugged like the alcohol in chardonnay.

"Narcissa does fear the Staff. You were wise to come to me. I can play nice this time and be… _generous."_

"Does that mean you'll also give us Eboni?" Annabelle asked, eagerness brimming momentarily in her violet eyes.

"Perhaps", Adromeda said gently. On the outside, she maintained her calm composure. In her eyes, though, she was teasing all of them terribly.

"You. Are you ready to negotiate first, or do I need to come back for you after I'm done?" Andromeda pointed at Megamind, and he drew back from her bony finger a bit.

"As ready as I'll ever be", Megamind said, a confident smile growing across his face. He looked equally dramatic with his neon green eyes slitted through his coiling black leather mask, making him look overall very smoldering.

"Ok. First, I'll be nice and give you these."

Megamind gasped in happy surprise when Andromeda handed him his Dehydration Gun, and his Disguise Generator that Narcissa had also confiscated before.

"How did you find these?" Megamind could only ask as Annabelle conjured up a holster for his gun. He put it safely there, happy to now have that comforting weight against his skinny thigh that he almost forgot about. And then he buckled his watch around his thin wrist like he usually did. He had missed these things, and now he could put them to large use with what he was dealing with.

"So that's what Narcissa stole from you…" Megan said, examining his inventions from across the table. She flashed to a Shadow and back, then weakly said, "…cool."

"So what do you want from me?" Megamind asked, steepling his fingers almost unconsciously, like he did sometimes when he was serious, or mischevious.

"Well, I know you are a superior mechanic…capable of devising a machine for almost anything. Except for that reset button, you're right the science is impossible…" Andromeda said, reading the alien's mind.

"And you want…?"

"Yes, well, those brainbots of yours are quite capable, are they not?"

"Of course!" Megamind boasted. "I have brainbots that specialize in particular things. Patrolling, nursing, even some that are like little maids. Plus they love to fetch wrenches."

"You have thousands", Andromeda stated.

"Yes. Like thousands of robotic dogs, I may add", Megamind informed the doctress. He was actually starting to enjoy talking to her, to his own surprise. He was trying to obtain a Staff here.

"Well, I would like one to help me organize potions, keep track of my potion recipies, and spellbooks, and also order my magical artifacts."

It didn't take long for Megamind to process the type of brainbot to specialize in that area.

"So you need one that is a master at organization", Megamind finished.

"Exactly. And it's plasma ball body will have purple sparks inside. It will have an excellently crafted crest made of either bronze or silver. It will have no spikes or fins. It's claws will have blue studs of any kind of stone, even artificial. Please note, I'm being nice to you on this", Andromeda explained what she wanted for her customized brainbot. Megamind merely nodded at her likings.

"Anything else?" he offered just to make sure.

"A device capable of labeling unknown substances would be perfect."

"Done", Megamind agreed, feeling smug. He could do all of that, no problem.

"Very good."

Megamind suddenly started to feel something creeping across his skinny thighs. He was afraid to look down, but did anyway.

He let out a strangled cry.

There were two blue snakes, thin and streamlined, coated with sapphire feathers slithering across his lap. Their long forked toungues darted in and out, and Megamind felt a few more snakes tickle at his bare chest and waist and both his arms.

They tightened around him, strapping him firmly to the upholstered chair.

Everyone stared at him, including Andromeda. And she had a strangely smoldering look in her creepy eyes.

Megamind grimaced.

"What the Tesla do you think you're doing, Andromeda…?"

But she didn't hold the look for long. Soon the others were entwined in anything from the same colored serpents to gross-looking tentacles.

"What the heck, Andy?" Megan cried, wriggling in her hold of a fiery red anaconda, suspisciously suggesting to squeeze the daylights out of the fairy at any given moment. It raised its scaly head and hissed menacingly in her ear.

"You know how I said I needed one thing from each of you to reach my deal?" Andromeda asked with a rhetorical tone that was also quite sneaky.

No one answered.

"Well." She stood up from her chair, and everyone else's chairs automatically swiveled to face the main part of the room.

"I lied. So yes, you get the Staff, and you get your little Rebel friend back."

Andromeda pointed to a statue of a strange girl embossed in the ceiling. The statue was life-sized, and Megmind could'nt quite make out all her specific features, but he did see she had a sunken face and short hair. Her eyes were closed, her arms stuck out in a crucifix.

She stuck her Staff out at the girl, and a purple beam shot from the orb at the top of the stick. It hit the statue, and the wood started to almost melt away as the girl was further revealed. When the wood was completely gone, the statue came to life as the girl yelped in sursprise and fell to the floor.

She raised her head.

"What the bloody crucifix happened… Annabelle? Megan? Who are these guys? Why did Andromeda set me free all of a freakin' sudden?" the girl said. That must've been Eboni. Her hair was tousled, and black streaked with stripes of white. She wore very heavy purple eyeliner, a cropped top, raggedy skirt, and combat boots all in black or gray. She was very emo-looking.

Megamind could glimpse two sharp fangs brushing against her bottom lip.

"Eboni, no time to explain fully—"

Annabelle was interrupted of her warning when Andromeda directed her Staff at Eboni, and she was thrust roughly into an unseen chair next to Megan. Black feathered cobras immediately encircled her.

"I have important matters to deal with you, Megamind", Andromeda practically purred as she approached him.

She slapped a bony hand atop his head firmly. Her nails dug into the skin of his blue scalp, making Megamind yelp in pain.

"I have something I should tell you, Blue Boy", Andromeda said with a sly undertone. What was she up to?

"Roxanne doesn't want you."

"What?"

"What?" Megamind could only murmur from shock at this statement that came without warning. "But that's not possible she said—"

Megamind's pupils dilated when Andromeda pushed her hand harder on his head. She was…brainwashing him.

"Megamind! Don't listen to her! She's—rgh—forcing you into it!" Roxanne cried in desperation.

"Why are you doing this, Andromeda?"

"Just to see the outcome", the doctress said with a wicked smile. Her fingers curled into his blue scalp even harder, until little beads of blood started to appear. Megamind didn't flinch. He sat stock still, as if nothing were happening at all.

His eyes started to stain purple.

"She doesn't really love you in your alien body", Andromeda hissed into his ear. Megamind didn't react, but it wasn't his fault when he took the words into account.

"DON'T LISTEN TO HER!" Roxanne screeched.

"She'd like you much better if you were… normal. No oversized head. No blue skin. Just a normal man, for her to have a normal life with…"

"That's not true!"

But Megamind couldn't listen to anything else but Andromeda.

"Listen to me", Andromeda growled, snatching his chin in her bony hand.

"Roxanne doesn't love you."

Andromeda finally took her hand off of Megamind's head, and he started gasping for air. Then all she had said to him started to sink in, even though it was all lies.

"Roxanne… you don't… love me?" Megamind almost whimpered as the neon green snapped back into his irises. The eyes looked at Roxanne with newfound sadness; forced sadness, actually. They even looked shiny with the tinge of oncoming tears. Roxanne almost died when she connected the exact same look with the night she had dumped him in the rain; all those harsh words and anger. They had just poured out of her, and onto Megamind. Poor, misunderstood Megamind.

She could see his Adam's Apple bob as he swallowed the lump in his throat. From time to time, purple flickered across his green eyes, indicating he was still under enchantment.

"You don't love me."

This time, Megamind simply stated it instead of asking her disbelievingly.

"She doesn't, Megamind, you're right", Andromeda said silkily as she sidled up to the decreipt-looking alien and stroked the back of his neck in mock comfort.

"I knew it. I knew it… all along." Megamind mused. His eyes flickered again.

"I'm… I'm an alien. She's a human. Chemistry between us is highliy unlikey."

It was what he had said all those weeks before to Minion. What he had let go mere moments after saying it, but now it was all coming back to settle in his mind, even though these feelings were being forced.

All the Rebels in the room gasped, while Eboni merely sat idle, unable to digest what was going on. Roxanne wanted to clap a hand over her mouth, but they were bound by coral snakes.

"You hear that, Roxanne!" Andromeda exclaimed with a phsychotic smile She stalked over to the poor brunette and jerked her chin upwards with one swift movement of her Staff.

"You… you…" Roxanne couldn't come up with harsh enough words to say to the witch doctress. What she had just wreaked upon Megamind was absolutely despicable beyond description.

"NYAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Andromeda cackled wildly as she removed the Staff from underneath Roxanne's chin and nimbly hopped down the short steps that led to her séance table. Her chocolate hand glowed pink, and then equally pink smoke began to emanate from the palm.

She flicked her had downwards, and in a shower of blinding fireworks, shiny betles spiraled up from where the smoke pelted on the carpeted floor. There was an eerie sound playing somewhere while she did it; almost as if it were a planned movie soundtrack.

Three vials with the most disgusting liquid inside one could ever imagine rose up from the floor without warning amidst the smoke.

Andromeda snatched a particularly disgusting vial from the small collection and waved it in Megamind's face. He stared at it blankly as ever. There was something almost ghostlike about his lifeless expression; something that was beginning to break Roxanne's heart.

"I guarantee this will fix your dillemma, Little Boy Blue", Andromeda grinned.

"Now listen to me. Take this potion when you leave my chamber. Be amazed at the results. Roxanne will love you once again."

"Roxanne will love me once… again… ARGH!" Megamind parroted in a flat tone, but then tried to escape from the hold of the trance.

It was futile.

"Andromeda, whatever you're going to do to him, it's not going to alter how I care for him! I love him just the way he is! Is there something wrong with that?" Roxanne exclaimed, writhing in the grip of the coral snakes.

"No, nothing wrong my dear Miss Ritchi!" Andromeda said, becoming more insane-looking by the second. "Just a little experiment, is all!"

"Why does the stupid experiment have to be on mine and Megamind's relationship, anyway?" Roxanne was legitimately baffled.

"Don't you know evil when you see it?"

That voice. It was familiar… it wasn't Andromeda…

It sounded like a twisted Roxanne.

The pink eyes were an inch from her blue ones in a second.

"You again!" Roxanne breathed.

The Shadow's pink eyes suggested she was smiling evilly.

"AAAAUGH!"

Roxanne looked down the line of Rebels pinned in their seats. The whole lot of them were screaming, for their shadow forms loomed over them…

In their zombie forms, bloodied and gnarled, and gem-eyed. Now they had an appeal more like a demon the way they were smiling like a person all but insane.

Megamind's Shadow, Roxanne could see, was flailing his spider legs all around in attempt to spook the real Megamind. It worked, and occaisionally the Shadow lashed his slimy, dripping, tencacle-like tongue out and flicked it about in front of Megamind's face. Occasionally, he reacted and grimaced, but when the purple came back in his eyes, he was ghostlike.

"Evil… yes, Miss Ritchi, you should know when you see it."

Andromeda, with a wave of her wrist, freed all the Rebels from the hold of the snakes and tentacles. Everyone's Shadows disappeared into thin air. They all fell to their knees, for the chairs had vanished as well.

"Here", Andromeda thrust the Staff at Megamind, who caught it just when his eyes turned green again. He frowned at her, now knowing that she had something up her sleeve… but what? She was almost as clever as Narcissa.

Andromeda yanked Megamind to his feet, and slipped the mysterious potion inside the holster where he had his newly found Dehydration Gun.

"Take this potion if you ever want to be happy again", the crazed doctress murmured into his ear.

Before Roxanne could so much as say one word of protest, Andromeda snapped her fingers loudly, and they all disappeared into a mass of (guess?) purplish smoke.

The doctress stood her ground, pleased with herself. She had taken care of her first victims in a long while. And they had simply fallen into her lure, hoping to uncover some help. And they did get some, but it also came with a curse.

For Megamind had no idea what the potion was about to wreak upon him.

"Did you do it?"

Andromeda had been expecting her. The doctress spun around on her heel to face the candy floss-haired Narcissa.

"Of course, milady", Andromeda purred as she drew the fake Staff out from nowhere. The absolutely powerless purple smoke swirled inside the orb just as authentically as the real one.

"Those filthy little Rebels don't stand a chance against me now. Not that they ever did anyway", The trillionaire sighed as she took a puff of air from her skinny pipe.

"So do I get the throne next to you when we rule the world?" Andromeda smiled, leaning against the fake Staff.

"Maybe, my dear. Maybe."

* * *

><p>So whose side is Andromeda on? To tell you the truth, none. A made her a sort of... Malinche, if you know what I mean ;)<p>

Trust me, there will be more Eboni, and more Eckere in the chapters that follow... for now, I need to get to work on Megamind drinking that mysterious potion...

What do YOU think it'll do to... ok... that was retarded. There was a hint in there that said it would turn him human -_- Sheesh, I'm so distracted.

Warning: next chapter may be a bit gross, following Megamind's painful transformation. CURSE YOU, SALAD FINGERS! YOU HAVE SCARRED MY MIND FOREVER!

So now there's two things to search for if you had no idea what I meant. Look up salad fingers on youtube...Malinche on Google...if you possibly DARE! *shivers from mental scarring*


	22. Chapter 22

**WHOO! chapter 22 is finally up!**

* * *

><p>Bleu Leather<p>

Chapter 22

His nose had been just an inch away from breaking on the cobblestone. What had just happened? The fact that Andromeda had brainwashed him made his mind foggy.

Voodoo. That had been trippy. It was a whole other form of magic Megamind had never witnessed before. Only in movies had he imagined such things…

And what was more, why was he in Narcissa's garden?

And where was Roxanne?

"Megamind!" Annabelle suddenly screeched from beside him. Without warning, she tackled him roughly, and the reason was unclear.

"Argh! Oof, what are you doing Annabelle?" Megamind exclaimed as she tried to wrench the potion from his holster.

"Get off!"

Megamind shook the princess of at last, and drew his De-Gun. She held her arms up in defeat, kind of scared by his apparatus.

"Megamind, you're still under that spell. I can't let you take that potion."

"But I—AUUGH!—really need the one inside the flask!" Megan moaned. She collapsed to her knees as a powerful jump to her growing Shadow form emerged again. This time she looked even more in pain than ever.

As soon as Megamind's eyes turned emerald again, he rushed over to help her. Before his irises could succumb to the purple, he yanked open to flask he was given, and simply popped it in Megan's mouth as if feeding a baby. She gulped it down hungrily, but in disgust.

After a few more seconds, Megamind pulled the bottle free of the fairy's mouth and tried not to look at the string of saliva that followed. She looked drowsy, and then she gave a severe shudder, and all was normal again.

"Yes! The stupid Shadow is GONE!" Megan cheered when she leapt to her feet. She gave one look down at herself, and forwned slightly.

"Now if only I could remove this Invader Zim getup…"

"Don't think so!" Annabelle singsonged annoyingly.

"Guys, where are Roxanne and… what's her name… Eboni?" Megamind asked. He mostly worried about Roxanne, though he did wonder about that girl with the fangs.

"I…don't know", Annabelle started. "Andromeda is so tricky! They could be anywhere… when we find the ivy wall, we could check my dorm? They might be there."

"I hope so…" the blue alien mused.

Then his eyes flickered purple for a moment as his fingers ghosted over the grey fabric tightly wrapped around his skinny waist.

That potion…

The part of him under the spell wanted desperately to take the mixture. His rational part told him to chuck it into te nearby shrubbery.

But what if Roxanne didn't really love him? What would he have done then?

The part of him still under the spell said to take the potion immidiately. Then he would get his darling back for good.

"Megamind… don't take that potion. Roxanne does love you. You're under a spell!" Annabelle said, grabbing the alien's shoulders and shaing them slightly.

"I don't—I do want to take it", Megamind started to say, but the purple flased back into his eyes with full force once again.

"Megamind, don't!"

But he didn't listen. The purple stayed for the longest time ever, and it wiled him to reach into the wraps around his hips, draw out the bottle, and bring it to his lips.

"Megamind, I don't even know if there's an antidote for that! It's going to be something horrible!" Megan exclaimed.

And then she remembered.

_She'd like you much better if you were…human._

"MEGS! IT'S GOING TO TURN YOU HUMAN!"

The potion made it past his lips.

The alien downed the whole bottle with a slight grimace. Megan and Annabelle watched with horror each time he gulped.

When the bottle left his lips, his eyes turned green again.

And they stayed that way.

Megamind started to breathe heavily as he stared in terror at the empty vial in his hand.

"Oh my God… oh my God, what did I just do?" He screamed.

"I want to be angry at you, Megamind, but the spell made you do it", Megan said with ashamed calmness in her voice.

"Have fun being human."

"WHAT?" the alien bellowed. "This… this stuff is going to turn me…"

Megamind didn't get the chance to finish his sentence as a strange look came across his face.

And there was the sound of shattering glass on the cobblestone as the bottle that once held the potion crashed to the ground.

"I feel… ugh… what did I do?" Megamind choked out as he dropped to his knees.

"Um… don't worry Megamind, I'll help you", Megan succumbed. She gently closed her hands around his arms and stood him up, but he was suddenly going boneless for some reason.

"I feel stupid for doing this…" Megamind moaned.

"Annabelle, could you help me?" Megan asked through strained groans. Megamind was a lot heavier when he was limp, and especially his head. Annabelle took hold of Megamind's neck and shoulders while Megan grsped his lower back and the backs of his knees.

"Ok, I think Narcissa has some sort of abandoned guest house in this garden somewhere", Megan remembered. "Let's carry him there until we can contact Eckere."

So the two girls staggered around the garden, looking quite ridiculous holding Megamind in the way that they were. But at least they weren't dragging him along on the ground. He could barely move because of the potion.

Just as both of their upper arm muscles were about to snap, Megan spotted what she had been looking for. The two-story guest house Narcissa had never bothered to use, for she had never allowed any guests for obvious reasons.

"Ok, Megamind, can you move now? My arms are gonna break off", Annabelle choked as she bit her lip to hold back a pained moan.

"I think so. The potion just… I don't know, probably shocked me and made me go limp", the alien mused mostly to himself. He sat up in Megan's arms with her help, and then was back on the ground in no time flat. But he did feel dizzy, and slightly queasy.

"Let's hope this door is—"

Megamind couldn't finish the sentence before the door to the guest house swung open with absolute ease when he pushed it.

"Please let there be a light switch…" he mused under his breath as his fingers skimmed over the nearby wall. They only brushed against it, though, because for some strange reason he though they would run over a tarantula at any given moment. His imagination could get wacky like that sometimes in stressful or hallucinated situations.

And the potion was doing things to him. The whole world in front of him swirled a tiny bit no matter how many times he rubbed his eyes. It was hard not to stumble when he walked.

Luckily, his fingers did graze over a light switch. He flicked it on, and then the guest house came to life with flourescent light.

It opened up into a small kitchen with a nearby bathroom, and a skinny staircase that led to the second story with bedrooms and offices. Most of the furniture was slightly out of date; a sign that Narcissa didn't care much for tending to this building.

Megamind didn't have enough time to actually recognize the whole scene before pain started to froth up inside his abdomen. It was sudden, and soon he was kneeling on the ground, doubled over in agony.

"Ok Megamind, you should get upstairs and lie down. Wait until you turn… human and then we'll figure out what to do", Annabelle tried to soothe the alien.

"Oh! In the meantime, we need the communicator Eckere gave you so we can know if Eboni and Roxanne ended up back in Annabelle's dorm", Megan remembered. The fairy knelt down to Megamind's level, and gently slipped the compact-resembling communicator from the folds of his grey wrap belt.

"Can you stand up?"

"Yeah", Megamind moaned as he slowly came to his feet. Now he felt woozy, but just clear enough so he could make it up the stairs safely.

"Ok. We'll be in the kitchen" Megan assured quickly, and then ran into the room with Annabelle, desperate to know if Roxanne and Eboni were where they thought they were.

Megamind took a hand to the banister of the staircase and climbed up. As he climbed, he thought about what the potion was going to do to him. Would it turn him human? Andromeda had hinted that.

And since the spell she had cast on him lasted only for a little while, Megamind now knew all hope of being with Roxanne was dwindling unless they could find an antidote.

But what if they coulnd't?

Megamind would stay human… and unloved.

The thought made him instantly depressed, and tears started to form at the corners of his neon green orbs. He swiped them away swiftly, even if no one would be around to watch the waterworks if they could not be helped any longer.

At last, Megamind made it to one of the master bedrooms in the upper level of the house. He practically crawled into the white bedsheets as he felt himself getting weaker and weaker.

Any second now. He would transform soon.

He slumped himself down on the matress. His head hung sadly at what was about to happen to him. Why did Andromeda have to do this? Why did Megamind have to be her test subject for a human potion?

If the results drastically changed Megmind, he swore to himself he would get revenge. Sweet, delicious revenge on Andromeda and Narcissa, both together.

And a sly, sightly evil part of him creeped back into a corner of his mind from where it usually hibernated. Sure, Megamind was a hero, but even heroes had to wreak revenge.

Looking back on his past, and how he grew up almost totally unloved added fuel to the fire. Roxanne was what had made his life whole and pure, and he was not about to lose her to a couple of witchy villains.

Yes, despite the arising problem, Megamind allowed himself one of his old, classic, evil smiles with his slender fingers steepled together for the finishing touch. The things he could unleash on those little villains… as he though about it he grew more and more exited, and at the same time annoyed.

His very bad annoyed.

And when he got very badly annoyed, villains had to watch their step.

Sweet revenge on those two.

But Megamind's diabolical smile did not last much longer when he suddenly, and strangely thought that he felt his boots get a bit… tight around his feet.

How had that happened? The boots had fit perfectly fine fact, they had been fine not a few seconds before.

Strange. Megamind pulled both his shoes off with some slight difficulty. He stared at his thin black socks.

You could only barely tell but Megamind did have to note that his feet were a bit…swollen?

He yanked off the socks. His toes did indeed look a little bigger than normal.

Oh no.

Was the potion doing this to him?

It…it had to be.

"Oh sister of… AGH!" Megamind started to exclaim, but his words caught when he also suddenly felt his tight leather pants get even tighter.

He quickly wrapped himself in some of the thinner sheets of the bed he had been sitting on, and rushed over to look at himself in the nearby vanity mirror. His face looked no different.

But he slowly parted the sheets around himself and screamed.

His waist had thickened to twice its size!

In fact, his body looked like a normal man's.

Normal.

And it had stretched his pants so badly, they had ripped up to above his normal-sized-not-skinny knee. He had muscular, shapely legs, and common human feet. His waist was not slender, but also slightly muscled like his thicker chest. Arms were also shapely and muscled.

Megamind gluped.

This was only the first stage before…

"No… no, no NO!"

Megamind covered his head in the white sheets so he wouldn't have to see his head…slowly shrink.

And at the same time… he couldn't believe this.

He could literally feel some of his intellect… erasing from his compacting brain.

"OWOWOWOWOWOW!"

Did he mention it hurt like absolutely no tomorrow? The blankets slipped away from his throbbing skull as he clutched it in his new, no longer spindly slender hands. His superior knowledge of machinery slipped away and diminished. Some of that natural charm that he had as an alien… that was slipping out of grasp as well.

"No… urghhhh…"

Megamind collapsed in a heap, and panting hard. His toned arms wound up in the sheets, but he scrambled with them so he could stand back up and reluctantly look at himself.

He looked so incredibly odd with his head this small.

And he thought it unattractive.

He hoped he would at least grow some hair on his scalp to make up for it.

…Speak of the devil.

First the stubble appeared dotted across his still curiously blue skin slowly, and then it elongated into a mass of thick, shaggy, pure black mane.

He was still.

What about his skin?

He stared at his thick hand, his new mind foggy due to how it had tremendously shrunk. Why was it staying…

He looked at the tips of his fingers.

They were a pale, peachy human hue. And the hue was quickly spreading across his palm.

"NO!" Megamind bellowed, clutching his wrist as if it would stem the spread of the new skin pigment. It kept right on traveling to every inch of his new body, as he watched the last bit of his old self being drained until it was gone.

Well, almost gone.

Strange. There was one little blue spot on his stomach that the blue form the rest of his body had traveled to.

He touched the spot.

Then he stumbled backwards and tripped over on the bed. His stomach was raging!

"Ah… no!"

Over the ringing of his ears, Megamind could hear Annabelle and Megan rushing upstairs to see what was wrong. They must've ended the transmission.

The door to the bedroom swung open, a worried Megan in front of Annabelle.

"Oh…my…freakin'…cheese."

Megamind kept on writhing in agony until he suddenly stopped and lay still on his back.

Pressure was building inside of him.

He arched his back.

SPLAT.

"AHH!"

The blue skin pigment had exploded right off of his body!

Megamind loked a the ceiling, panting hard again. There was the blue. It had stuck on the ceiling like jelly, and some of it dripped down onto the bedsheets and on his pale cheekbones.

"Dude!" Annabelle exclimed after a few silent seconds of looking at the ceiling and back at Megamind. "What just exploded out of your intestines?"

Megamind couldn't sit up. He couludn't even process what had just happened. In comparison to how large his head had been minutes before, he felt even stupider than ever.

The transformed alien rolled his head over to look at the two girls who were staring and grimacing at the blue slime on the ceiling. They quickly looked back at him curiously.

"You look so…so… different. Human", Megan mumbled at last. She drew nearer to the exhausted Megamind, only comforted by the fact that his face still looked the same, and he had his glowing emerald eyes that looked even more exotic and unnatural upon his new skin and paired with his silky ebony hair.

Megamind uncomfortably drew the sheets tighter around himself and winced as he felt his leather pants and his De-Gun holster give way under the stress of having a way thicker body suddenly inside them.

She softly touched his pale cheekbone, as if to feel some difference between human and alien skin, like the blue slime still dripping from the ceiling and staining the blankets.

"Is it bad?" Megamind almost whimpered, but then clapped a hand over his mouth.

Even his voice sounded different. Roxanne wouldn't even be able to tell him by his unique, foreign, handsome voice anymore. Intead of an alluring, husky, yet very slight accent that most people couldn't place, it was a slight Italian accent now.

Normal, earthly Italian.

"It's bad if an internal organ just exploded out on the ceiling", Megan said, resisting the strange urge to laugh. "Did you have any…odd organs as an alien?"

"No", Megamind answered.

"Hey, can the Staff do anything to help him?" Annabelle said, lifting up the stick from the hardwood floor where Megamind had dropped it.

His green eyes widened. He had almost forgotten that he even had the Staff in his hands the whole time.

"I don't think Andromeda would've made it that easy to cure him", Megan said, turning to face the cloudsprite. "But I know there has to be an antidote." As Megan said this, she balled her hand up in a fist, causing her Invader Zim gloves to squeal slightly.

"Who do we have to rescue next, Annabelle?" Megn asked rhetorically.

"…Aidan."

"Righteousness!" Megan affirmed while she stuck her arm in the air dramatically. "And his prison is underwater. If I'm correct, and if the rumors are true, there's a certain grottoe deep in the Narcissa Sea with berries that almost for certain have the antidote for any hex, curse, or cursed potion."

"This human form is a curse, without a doubt", Megamind said as he tried to sit up.

"DON'T SIT UP!" The two girls exclaimed in unison while they scrunched their eyes shut.

"Oh yeah…" the human-turned alien mumbled. He flopped back down on the mattress, a ruby blush flowering on his new pale skin. He had almost no clothes on, due to his doubling in size. This cuased him to blush even harder.

"Annabelle, give him some clothes. Now."

The princess raised her hand momentarily.

"And give him a shirt this time, if you please."

"But he looks so hot…!"

"FOR THE LOVE OF SWISS, ANNABELLE!" Megan exploded, slapping half her face with her gloved hand so nobody could se her blush.

The scolded cloudsprite turned around with her mouth puckered closed, and looked thoughtful for a moment, then snapped her fingers. Megamind felt the comfort of clothes around him again, and was able to sit up and take another look at himself in the simple vanity mirror.

He now sported a tight grey shirt with a small popped collar and thin, cropped gloves with small studs on the rims. His pants were tight leather, and he had a few belts to go along with his new gun holster, which had more straps around his thigh than normal. He had black and blue platform boots with several silver buckles to finish it off.

But the attention to his clothes didn't last very long. He was more drawn to how his skin had chnged. How he had hair. How he was no longer anorexic-waisted, but still modestly muscular.

The hair was what was causing a problem. Megamind had been bald all his life, and hair was irritating to him. The black, black bangs, layered and tousled kept falling before his eyes and tickling his small forehead.

Not that he didn't like hair whatsoever. He adored Roxanne's luminous, silky cinnamon hair. He loved to brush through it, sniff it, and ruffle it and just play with it any way he could.

But having hair on his own head was very unnatural. Very weird.

"How does it feel to have hair, Mr. Dreadlocks?" Megan said, trying to cheer him up. She stepped forward and mussed the mop of glorious shaggy black on his head. Megamind gave her a weak smile, looking at her smirking reflection in the mirror.

"This feels so weird. And who knows what Roxanne will think of me if I see her again", Megamind said, his small smile quickly vanishing.

"Plus", he remembered, pulling out his De-Gun to give it a wistful look. "When my head shrank… I lost my genius ability to invent these types of things. I forgot how I invented this gun. I don't know how Minion's gorilla suit works anymore. And this cursed potion took away my devilishly handsome natural charms…"

Annabelle and Megan watched slightly fearfully as he nearly crushed his gun with the growing rage inside him. He growled menacingly and he swiftly holstered it.

"I'm going to get her. I'm going to get Andromeda for this. Narcissa too. I need revenge."

The two girls had never sen Megamind like this. They had never seen a hero vowing revenge. But then again, all the Rebels were trying to save the world while getting their own revenge as well.

Megan, because Narcissa had forced her to tell her about the magical world she knew and loved.

Annabelle, because she had worsened her lying.

And Megamind because his and Roxanne's relationship had been severely tampered with.

"So… were you able to reach Eckere?" Megamind asked, trying to calm down a bit.

"Thankfully, yes", Annabelle confirmed. "And she says that Roxanne and Eboni are also in my dorm with her, so that's a relief."

Megamind let go of a breath he didn't realize he was holding.

"But… she was left without repair for a while, and she's getting a lot of random, weird glitches. While we were talking, she said "meatballs" about three times."

"I'll see if I can fix that!" Megamind said excitedly, but then his face fell. He kept forgetting that most of his knowledge had been taken away by the potion.

He slumped himself back down on the bed, trying to avoid the large blue stain that had accumulated there. His head hung, and I was easier now that it was smaller and less heavy.

"We'll cure you somehow, Megamind. I know we will", Annabelle consoled. Megamind didn't answer.

"In the meantime…maybe we should call you by Johnny again. Calling a human by Megamind just feels…I don't know…weird."

Megamind understood Megan. The lack of him having a protruding skull anymore made it pointless to call him Megamind anymore. Besides,the name was only irritating when Narcissa called him that.

"What will Roxanne think of me?" He mumbled decreiptly. "She'll have a reason not to love me anymore. Half my brain is gone, and along with it most of my smarts and what makes me…me. I don't feel like I can wildly charm her anymore…I guess I've lost the ability."

Megan and Annabelle shared sympathetic looks, and then directed the same looks to "Johnny".

"I feel very sorry for you, but at least it can be cured", Annabelle reasoned.

"How diffucult is it to get to that so-called berry that'll turn me back into myself?" Megamind wondered out loud.

"Listen, I don't even know for sure it exists, but it's very likely. Please tell me it'll console you", Megan apologized.

"So what if it doesn't exist?" Megamind protested. "What if I'm stuck like this?"

"Mega—Johnny, you don't even know if Roxanne'll turn you down just because you're a human! I've seen that she really does love you. She won't love you any less if you're a human, because it's still you, deep inside", Annabelle reasoned.

Megamind's thin black brows darkened a bit. "I know this for certain, she won't love me. Maybe not because of the hair or new skin, but how could you love someone who's lost half their brain, and can't recover one of the most alluring traits of their personality? I've been mutated into a whole other… creature. And if there's no cure, I am going to personally fry Andromeda alive."

With that, Megamind growled like a ravaging bulldog, and balled up his fist.

He drew it back with all his might, and then punched clean through the glass in the vanity mirror, sending shards of glass rocketing across the hardwood floor with a metallinc tring.

Annabelle and Megan were taken aback by his behavior. He was turning very angry, and angrier the more he thought about this.

But in reality, he was torn between feeling furious or crestfallen. Was it better to loathe Andromeda's soul for wreaking this upon him, or crestfallen because his first girlfriend in his life was most likely to feel nothing for him anymore?

And this hurt tremendously, because his past had mostly to do with the crestfallen feeling. Grown up in a prison, raised by criminals, and with only a fish to keep him company. Being rejected by all his peers in school because he was the freak, and Metro Man was a god. Then being a villain, despised by all, and being dejected at his one chance of love he had in a lifetime.

Turning into a hero was the best thing that had ever happened to him. It got him Roxanne back, and it made him loved by all in Metro City. His lafe had never been more perfect. Especially the part where Roxanne came in. She filled the little extra space Megamind had always been curious about since he noticed something was missing from his life. And that extra space had naged him so annoyingly until he finallt figured it out, and it made him the happiest alien on Earth.

It was a space that was not replaceable. Roxanne was the only woman most of the population knew who would even remotely consider being with an alien. And Megamind loved her much too much to ever lose her.

This human form would ruin it all. Everything he had wondered about, and sulked about almost his entire life would fall apart, and he'd most likely just lose all hope of ever being even a smidge happy again.

Megamind heaved himself down on the floor this time, and buried his head in his knees so he could try to ignore the nagging lightheaded feeling that reminded him all the time that he was human. And he was stuck like this until a plausible antidote could be recovered.

_Don't show them you tears. Not again, never_, Megamind thought as the liquid pooled in his eyes and dribbled onto his knees.

"Johnny… I don't know what else to do. Let's just hope for the best when we go fetch Aidan, and that Roxanne will still love you even in this form", Annabelle said, giving up at last. Megamind was making a lot of sense. You couldn't love someone if they turned into a whole other being, and lost half their mental abilities. It just made them too different from their original form, and even if, deep down inside, it was still the same person, it wasn't the same.

Megamind kept his face buried in his knees, not wanting to show it to anyone. He was too ashamed, too mad, too afraid to let anyone to see what had become of him. And he was not terribly eager to see Roxanne's reaction when she took a look at him when they went for Annabelle's dorm tomorrow. She would probably push him away…

Just like he had been pushed away from everyone all his pitiful little life.

That was it. Megamind knew this had to happen at some point in their relationship. How could he have been so naïve? This always happened to him. He was an alien, and he didn't belong on Earth at all. It was stupid to think you could find a lasting mate on a foreign planet where you're the only one with a forehead six inches tall and skin the color of azure.

It made you a freak.

And no matter how many times anyone could tell him; no matter how many useless lectures he was put through, nothing could change his mind about that statement ever again.

Because it was pretty freakin' true.

Megan and Annabelle hovered there, waiting to see if Megamind would move and do something about his predicament. But he didn't. He had his fill of being rejected all his life, and this happening just crossed his limits at last, when it seemed he had no limits.

The two girls stood there until Megan feared that Megamind would explode suddenly in fits of roaring and screaming to get this powerful feeling out until all he could do was weep bitterly. She was suddenly very scared, actually, because if he could punch clear through a mirror without getting so much as a scratch, imagine what he could do next.

"Annabelle… let's get out of here and just leave him alone…I'm afraid he's going to explode or something", Megan whispered into the cloudsprite's ear. She took her by the wrist while keeping a wary eye on the human-turned alien and started to the door.

But she couldn't do it fast enough. Her fear came true.

"GET OUT!" Megamind's head snapped up and he bellowed without warning at the innocent girls, who jumped out of their skins in shock. They were glued against the door swiftly as he pinned them there roughly after he stood up and approached them.

"What are you doing?" Megan whimpered. Megamind was so scary when he was angry. His once beautiful, shining emerald orbs were looking aflame with flickers of venom that could kill. Her legs started to quake severely as Annabelle stood nearby, also stuck in place by Megamind's powerful hand. They both hyperventilated.

"Just...Get...Out. Leave me alone!" He snarled monstrously.

"Let go! Let go of me!" Megan sniveled again. Her legs started to flail and shudder at the same time, terrified at how different Megamind was acting. He had gone insane!

Megamind shoved the two girls further up aginst the door, opening it in the process. They both tumbled out of the room, then the door slammed with so much force, it was a wonder it hadn't been reduced to splinters. Scrambling to their feet, they ran all the way downstairs, thinking Megamind could be on their tails at any second.

What had become of him?

Meanwhile, Megamind had immediately regretted doing that to the poor girls after he had slammed the door. He regretted it immensely.

"Oh, God…" He moaned, running his hands through his hair. Being a human sucked. It just plain sucked. He didn't know he had that in him…that rage. That fury. It had just never happened before.

And he felt even worse to just realize he had done that to little girls. Adults didn't do that. At least, adults with boundaries and sanity. Why had he done that?

Maybe it was because he had felt an immense feeling of rage come on…and it was only a short burst, but it was a very powerful one, at that. To have the nerve to yell at a couple of kids like he had just done…it was ruthless.

He was being awfully cruel ever since the transformation. But it made him feel worse, because Megan and Annabelle didn't know just how much suffering he was put through as a child and throughout the course of his entire life up until a month ago. Roxanne would've probably understood…and so would Minion, and they would've known to keep their distance if Megamind had a feeling anything like this one inside him.

It was an odd, complicated feeling he couldn't label with a regular word. He felt stark raving mad at Andromeda and Narcissa for tampering so much with him and Roxanne's love, and he needed revenge so badly. His history had so much to do with it, and they didn't know it at all. Not that they would care, anyway. They would just use the knowledge to their advantage.

He was positive he'd never be happy again, because Roxanne wouldn't love him anymore in the wretched human form. And as much as it hurt him to admit it, he'd probably be very angry at her for that, even if she acknowledged the impact on him from the stress of his past. This made him hurt even more, because he hated to stay angry at Roxanne.

And there was this last, very strage feeling… it was blossoming right now, in fact. And it was scaring him.

As much as he didn't want it to, his evil side was starting to show itself again…

That was bad. That was really, really bad. And it would demolish his heroic reputation he had been slowly gaining if Metro City ever found out.

Yet he couldn't supress the diabolical need to destroy…something. Anything. As insensitive as it sounded, part of his shrunken brain wanted to go insane. And not his old, cliché, weak attempts at evil. Real evil.

Like…rampages.

Killing.

"NO! NO! I'm not turning evil again!" He cried out to himself. Megamind clawed furiously at his ebony hair, but he couldn't push away that snarky little voice in the back of his tiny head that told him desperately to put this feeling into action.

And stranger still, as he thought about unleashing that sadist side in him, it would probably satisfy the hungry little demon telling him to do something horrible, therefore satisfying him.

But why would he feel satisfaction towards evil?

What had Andromeda done to him?

Megamind gave up fighting with himself and flopped down on the bed in defeat. This was too much for his brain to digest. Too many feelings. Too much insanity his brain craved for some odd reason.

He didn't want to be evil again. Ever.

The lump he had had in his throat this whole time swelled to such an unbelievable size, it almost choked him. His whole face felt boiling with frustration.

Then he broke out in sobs until he had no more tears left to cry.

* * *

><p>WAAAGH! Why am I being so freakin cruel to Megamind? I seriously had no clue the part of him possibly being some sort of sadist would fit in ANYWHERE! And now there'e no turning back, because for some reason I think it's...it's AWESOME! O_O And the song that's blasting out from my earbuds right now isn't helping. Monster...by Skillet. It's awesome but is forcing me to like sadist Megamind!<p>

Now I just have visions of him dripping in Andromeda's blood and scratching walls until it looks like a bear has been rampaging in the room. I am going to give myself nightmares...like totally...

Add a few extra features to my vision, like fangs and spines up his back, and I'll go equally insane as he might O_o

Well, I need to go write the next chapter so you see how he ends up! Until then, LATERZ!

I think the review button is somewhere down here...

\\/

I know, arrow fail -_- I'm such a n00b.


	23. Chapter 23

The name Kaitoia belongs to FantasyBard from the fanfiction First Contact :) I am using it simply because I liked the name, and I couldn't think of anything else -_-

* * *

><p>Bleu Leather<p>

Chapter 23

_Screeee-eeee-ee-eee…_

It was amazing his nails hadn't been worn out yet. How long had he been doing this?

Megamind stood up from the floor where he kneeled to look out the bubbly glass window. It distorted the veiw of Narcissa's garden from outside, but it was definitely dark now.

He wasn't done sulking, though. He was still mad.

So he positioned his right hand on a spot of still undisturbed wall and clawed his fingers.

His nails dug through the white wallpaper, and he began another long scratch all the way down to the floor. As his hand slowly moved down, his body did as well. He scratched the wall until he came to his knees again. Then he looked up to admire his work.

It looked like a werewolf had clawed the walls. Perfect, because it was how he felt. Like a beast.

In fact, the room was quite untidy now that he had lost his temper all over it for the past few hours. At first, after he stopped crying, he started to overturn furniture fervently and kick at everything that wasn't nailed down. After he got too tired to do that, he made angry sounds until his throat got even sorer than it had been before.

And then, after his energy was almost zero, he let his feelings out silently by clawing through the wallpaper on the walls, scratching every inch of them.

And at one point, when he started to scratch the walls two hours ago, Megan and Annabelle had dared to come up into the room to ask him if he wanted dinner. Then they ran straight back out screaming when they saw the mess he had made. He hadn't even had a chance to turn around and look at them apologetically from what he had done to them a while beforehand.

He felt like a monster.

So he stopped scratching up the wallpaper at last. He was oficially drained of energy, and he was actually very hungry.

He examined his peach nails. He winced at how dirty they had become. Usually he was a stickler for hygeine, and he regretted destroying the walls, because it had given him hangnails.

Hangnails? He had never, ever had one before. It was most likely due to his wearing gloves all the time.

He had taken off the short finned ones to claw at the walls as soon as the idea came to him. He had taken off everything except his pants, because all that fury had made him terribly hot. His hair was damp with sweat, and tendrils of it were sticking in greasy bunches over his forehead. Since he had never had hair before, Megamind didn't exactly know if he should wash it or not.

He probably would've known if he had his large head back.

This little realization sent him an annoying little twinge of anger. Maybe one more scratch on the wall wouldn't hurt?

No. Maybe not. He needed to clean his nails.

Megamind got up to his feet to turn on the light on the rickety bedside table so he could see in the nighttime darkness. He was surprised at how weak the little rampage had made him, and his thick thighs shuddered if he tried to put too much weight on them. He probably weighed closer to one hundred and forty pounds instead of his usual eighty pounds now. Good thing it was mostly in muscle.

Megamind swallowed. It was painful. He still had that sore throat from yowling like a cat. His stomach felt kind of queasy.

So this was what it was like to have the 24-hour flu.

He had never been sick before.

He went into the small bathroom in the far corner of the room to wash his nails anyway. And meybe he should wash his face too.

He looked over to his left.

Maybe he should take a shower altogether.

Good thing he only had the pants to strip off, because he was completely drained of energy to take off anything else.

_Being sick really sucks, _He thought as he fumbled with the stuck water handle coated with water stains.

* * *

><p>He couldn't sleep. Not with the feelings revolving around his head once more.<p>

And also the nausea from before was getting stronger, so every time he felt something that might've been coming up, he would jump out of bed and rush over to the sink in the bathroom only to find out that it was a false alarm.

So he gave up trying to sleep. Even without the nausea, he wouldn't be able to sleep anyway. There were many more problems keeping him up while he pondered and sifted through them.

He sat up in nothing but black boxers. He propped his chin up with his right hand and crossed his muscular legs together, still trying to get used to the fact that his knees were not small and slender.

He had forgotten about the insane part of his brain gnawing at him when the warm water had hit him in the shower. He couldn't help but be soothed by the feling of it running down his skin, and it almot purified him like holy water.

But soon as he wrapped himself in a small, skimpy towel, the feelings came flooding back strongly. Then he had gone back to being nauseous and emotional. Megamind wondered if another shower would make him feel better now, but he was too lazy with grief to get up out of bed even if the sheets had a large blue stain on them, and were soaked in sweat from his flu.

Now that there was no warm water to take his mind off of the little demon in his brain, the little demon was coming back stronger than ever, telling him to do something insane soon so he could be satisfied. And Megamind had to admit, it was a little tempting.

Ok, very tempting. But yet the reformed, hero part of him kept saying over and over,_ don't listen to that little demon! Heroes are not sadists! Control yourself!_

And Megamind wanted to control himself. Yet he wanted to bathe in Andromeda's blood at the same time.

What could this feeling be described as? Wanting to retain a sane reputation, yet at the same time wanting to kill? This was so confusing.

Megamind drew his legs up to his chest and propped his chin up on his knees. He looked out the bubbly glass window; out at the midnight sky stained as black as his ebony hair. A leftover tear from hours ago finally dribbled past his eyelid and kind of burned his bare knee at how hot it was. He did not want to go insane at all. If he did, Roxanne would for sure hate him just as much as she did in his evil days. Probably even more than all the citizens of Metro City had used to. And the last thing he wanted was for Roxanne to cease even acknowledging him as even possible friend material for doing something abhorrent. Roxanne would only lose her feelings for him when she saw what he had become. A literally half-brained human.

A normal human.

And then Megamind immediately wound up confusing himself. She had assured him multiple times that she would hate a normal life with a normal man, and Megamind was by no means normal. But she meant it in a good way. Yet Megamind had always been afraid she would come to her senses and abndon him for a normal man once she realized she was dating and alien.

He had a headache now. He was faced with another burning question. Who would or did Roxanne love, really? A human, or Megamind? Which thesis was correct?

Megamind had no way of knowing. But he did know that this human form had a chance of causing a problem.

Then, he was brought back to where he started when the answer came to him. Roxanne showed no sign of ever stopping her love for him. And he knew she wouldn't lie to him when she told him over and over that she loved him perfectly well just the way he was. At one point, he had protested, saying that she couldn't possibly have thought his head was not at all deformed, and his skinny body not disproportionate. She liked those things. She liked everything about him. Megamind trusted her, and she had never lied to him, ever.

So, on second thought, the human form would probably cause calamity. He was different from the Megamind Roxanne had loved. And being this different—smaller head, less smarts inside it, no blue skin, no wild charms—woud cause anyone to fall out of love with their partner if they had changed that drastically. It was just not the same.

Megamind let go of his shins and let his legs dangle over the bed while he exhaled loudly. Love was so complicated.

And he was feeling worse the more he thought about it, physically emotionally and mentally.

He gazed out the window of bubbly glass once he flipped his sweaty ebony hair out of his green eyes. What made him feel even more uncomfortable was the fact that he most definitely had gotten sick somehow. Before bed, he had felt his small forehead, and it was exeedingly warm. The soon after, he had gotten congested, and after that, sore muscles. He felt miserable.

A twinge of pain surged through his stomach, and so suddenly it made his torso thrust forward. Not again!

Was something going to come up this time? He sure hoped not. But his bare feet slapped against the hardwood floor as he ran into the bathroom for the fourth time in one night.

Megamind braced himself on the granite counter with his head hanging over the sink in case this was not another false alarm. He panted hard, a bead of sweat trickling down the bridge of his nose. He was sure his skin was even paler than its original tone when he had transformed earlier.

Something was coming up. He leaned his head over the porcelain sink a little further.

Then the feeling stopped when it was practically at the back of his throat. His mouth hung open, even though he didn't want to retch. But he did want to, to get this feeling to go away.

His tongue hung limply from his lips, and he made a gagging sound in his throat, trying to get something to come out.

He coughed. Something splattered. He opened his eyes. Some bile spotted in the sink, but it still didn't satisfy him.

Oh well. He stood up straight again and wiped the droplets of vomit from his lips. In the meantime, he couldn't help but stare hopelessly at his reflection in the mirror above the sink. Damp, shaggy hair the color of an inkwell. Skin so fair, it was lighter than Roxanne's. A waist so wide and weird-feeling from his normal 14.3 inches, it made him feel…large.

But above that, he ogled scornfully at his tiny head. He couldn't even multiply 267 by 548 in his head in five seconds anymore. He felt very stupid.

He looked down at his feet, and was about to look back up when he felt… a minor…disturbance in the room. Luckily, his human form hadn't quite disabled a sort of sixth sense he had always had as an alien. And he was suspicious. The way the little black hairs on the back of his neck prickled didn't comfort him.

He produced a small string of light from his hand (his power had remained after the transformation) and strung it around his neck like a glowstick necklace handed out on the Fourth of July. The neon pink illuminated the dim room a little better than the full moon did.

What was in the bedroom that caused him to have this feeling? Or was it just jittery nerves from his flu?

Psh. This was Narcissa's manor. Even though only a guest house, you could never be too careful where strange creatures lurked.

"Megan? Annabelle? Who's in here?" Megamind demanded, his voice scratchy from his sore throat.

"Girls…if that's you, I really need to apologize for what I did earlier", Megamind tried. There was no sign of them.

He carefully stepped towards a broom cupboard in the far side of the bedroom. It might not hurt to look inside, even if it might be regretted.

He turned the handle.

And screamed.

He saw the silhouette of a person inside.

"Who's in there?" He coughed up some mucus when he yelled. "Show yourself!"

"I mean no harm!" A female voice chided from inside the cupboard. Whoever that was had a British accent.

"Who are you?" Megamind demanded again, curling up in fear on the headboard of the bed.

"I need to check if you are truly the right person I've been looking for", the voice said. Megamind saw the woman slowly step out of the cupboard, though he still only saw her silhouette.

"Come into the light", Megamind said with a slight quiver. This time, instead of just a string of light coming from his hand, it glowed and gave off a bright orange luminescence.

The woman hesitantly stepped forth one foot at a time, seeming sort of nervous. And Megamind was nervous too.

She was not ordinary. Megamind could sense it. Somehow, he could. His ears were ringing and there was a fire in his torso that wasn't from his flu. It was a sort of alarm his body was making.

An alarm that got more and more insistent the closer the woman got. His calves shuddered uncontrollably.

His breath caught and he almost choked when he saw her fully.

His strange hunch had been right. Oh, it had been right.

No words came out of his mouth, which hung agape while strangled screams occasionally wormed out. He was sure his skin was as white as the full moon outside.

The woman was not a woman.

She…she looked more like…

_Him._

Or how he looked before the potion.

No, no, no. This was not possible. No, no, no, he had been the only survivor when his planet had been sucked into the black hole all those years ago. No, no, no, he had to be dreaming.

But his mind, especially since it was mutated to a human's, could have never conjured up the wildfire that had escaped from his torso and flickered over every inch of his body.

His half-naked body.

Megamind remembered he only had black boxers on, so he tried his best to snap out of his bewildered moment of stillness to bundle up tightly in the stained sheets.

The female alien walked the rest of the way to a completely shocked Megamind and seated her thin, yet curvy self on the edge of the bed. Megamind tried to inch backwards, but was already plastered hard against the carved headboard.

His jade eyes stared with confusion and fear into her eyes. They were the color of brilliant ruby—no, a thousand rubies, and it contrasted loudly with her robin egg-blue skin. Yet they did not clash.

All in all, this woman was beautiful. In spite of her tattered tunic, she was delicate. Her face was gentle and warm, and her large blue head crested perfectly behind slightly pointed, large flat ears that looked exactly like Megamind's. She had a small, stitched scar near the top of her head, and long lashes.

This wasn't a romantic attraction of course, but Megamind felt a strong, very strong connection with her. It was so strong, it hurt.

And without thinking; without willing his mouth to say anything, he said it.

"Kaitioa."

"Syx."

"What?"

"Your real name", Kaitoia said. "I can't belive you don't remember."

"How do you know it?" Megamind asked.

Kaitoia was silent. She took a deep breath in and out.

"Megamind, I'm your sister."

Megamind simply stared at her, and then it clicked.

"…No…it can't be… you are, really?" He mumbled , totally and completely baffled. He ran his hand through his shaggy black hair and rested his angular chin in his knees.

"I know it's sudden, but I've been trying to look for you all my life", Kaitoia said, trying to make him believe. She took a last desperate look into Megamind's eyes, studying them closely.

All the while, Megamind felt more and more connected with her, even though she had appeared out of a broom cupboard mere moments ago. There was just something about her Megamind had recognized instantly once he saw her face, and those eyes the color of garnets.

She had to be his sister. Somehow, he knew. This feeling welling up inside him was a dead giveaway.

He looked into her almond-shaped eyes even more intently as the feling grew and grew.

Before he could stop himself, He sat up on his haunches and hugged her. He felt fireworks go off inside him at the knowledge of having a long-lost family member right here in front of him. That connection had been so immediate, it was amazing.

He had a sister, though he couldn't remember it from his baby days at all.

He had a sister.

Megamind broke the hug faster than he wanted to, feeling awkward at this suddeness and the fact that the sheets kept slipping off of him. He quickly gathered them back up and sat back on his heels, flickering his eyes up at Kaitoia.

"Sorry", Megamind simply said.

"Why?"

"Honestly?" he said, "I have no clue."

"Well, that was a little quick and cliché", the alien mused, rolling her eyes slightly.

"I don't even know anything about you", Megamind said as he kept on wrapping the sheets more and more around himself.

"Megamind, there is so much to tell, I don't even know where to start. I'm a bloody basketcase right now", Kaitoia stammered, pinching her smooth blue temples.

"But", Megamind realized looking at his human skin, "if you said before that you've been looking for me all your life, how did you know it was me in this… absolutely abhorrent curse of a new body?" He spat. "See, now I don't know where to start either."

"I knew it was you, because you were the only one on our planet with eyes as green as those", Kaitoia said. Megamind smirked at that.

"But I thought I was the only survivor", he said.

"Your pod was sent to Earth after mine landed in London", Kaitoia exlained. "So you can guess how my accent stuck."

"Where did your pod land?"

"Michigan", Megamind answered. Then he frowned, briefly remembering how his whole life had started in a prison.

"I landed right on the doorstep of an orphanage", Kaitoia said.

"I landed in a prison."

"You what?" Kaitoia looked horrified. "What happened to you then?"

"Before I could be sent to an experimentational laboratory, Warden made me a citizen of Metrocity", Megamind said with a faraway look. The connection with Kaitoia suddenly peaked, and soon he spilled all of it; every last detail.

He told her how he had been treated in school, and about Metroman and their rivalry. He told her about his only friend being Minion. He told her about his evildoing that went on for twenty years. And then how he had finally evolved to being the hero because of one beautiful woman.

Roxanne.

Megamind loved saying her name alone. He told Kaitoia all about her, saving the best for last.

"She's my girlfriend", he announced proudly after roughly an hour of explaining thoroughly.

"You sure are quite lucky that we can be…you know, fertile with humans. We are almost exactly like them, in fact", Kaitoia said.

"But good for you, you got the girl!" Kaitoia all but squealed.

"I can't imagine how hard life was for you a child", she said, her excitement quickly dropping.

And as her excitement dropped, Megamind's did so as well. It felt good to have his long-lost sister to talk to, but his biggest problem was still strong in his mind.

"You know how I cursed this human form earlier?" He mumbled sadly. He mumbled sadly. He scrunched his eyes shut before he could start crying again, as that annoying prickling had just begun to blossom.

"Uh huh?" Kaitoia could sense something wrong. Something horrible.

"It took away half of my brain, Kaitoia. Half."

"Oh…God…" Kaitoia mumbled.

"And Roxanne's…not going to love me because of that…"

Kaitoia's eyes were glistening with tears already. Now that he had explained his whole story already, and in brilliant detail, she was horrified. And Megamind had told her about Andromeda, everything. All this pain and suffering he was put through.

"I don't think I should live anymore", Megamind moaned as he buried himself completely under the sheets in shame and hopelessness.

"Don't talk that rubbish. Maybe Roxanne might feel differently, but… there has to be an antidote", Kaitoia tried to console him.

"But…I suppose that feeling you have is why this room is in complete shambles…?"

"Actually, yes. I had quite the temper", Megamind said after he partly peeked out from the blankets.

The two were in silence, staring at the floor while listening to soft cricket chirping outside.

Megamind, even though he had been talking to Kaitoia for quite some time, felt this was very, verysudden. Just out of the blue, "I'm your sister".

"You haven't told me about you yet", Megamind realized after he broke the silence. Kaitoia gave a weak smile.

"Well, I did land in London when I came down to Earth. I guess the caretaker at the orphanage was just like Warden for you… she registered me as a legal citizen of England before some secret lab could steal me away first. Then, I stayed there with all the other children until…"

"Until what?"

Kaitoia's eyes flickered up and down. "Narcissa adopted me when I was a year old. But she only adopted me to add to her magical creature collection. Sure, she took care of me so I would be a healthy baby, but when I was four years old, she started to abuse me and lock me up in prisons all over her mansion. ."

"That's… awful", Megamind breathed, sensing nothing else to say.

"But there was one strange thing… sometimes she would go into a fit of rage like you did all over this room…and she kept screaming "Oberon, Oberon" again and again."

Megamind cocked his black eyebrows. "Isn't Oberon supposed to be… a character from Shakespeare?"

"There's a decent chance his Midsummer Night play might've actually taken place", Kaitoia said. "But most people think it's hogwash. I don't know whether The Fairy King and Queen are real. It's a myth."

Megamind was honestly flustered. Magical other-realms were just beginning to settle in to him that all this was real, but now he was confused by Narcissa's behavior.

This could be a reason of her being evil.

Why hadn't Megamind realized it sooner? She had to have a reason for doing all this, or there would be no point in trying to conquer Earth.

His decision was made. If he could—if he ever could—he would find out the reason as to why Narcissa was so vile. It might give him an advantage to defeating her later. And maybe even a chance to change her, no matter how far-fetched it seemed.

But look at him. He was a villain, terrorizing Metro City for twenty long years, and he reformed because he fell in love. It could take the tiniest things to change a person sometimes, but other times it took drastic measures.

"Well, what did Narcissa do to you that caused you to want revenge on her just like I want? It's a purpose of being a Rebel. Megan told me you're a Rebel", Megamind said.

"There is a truckload of reasons as to why I'll have my vengeance", Kaitoia grumbled. "First of all, she kept trying to entice me over to the dark side as if I had some sort of powers to help her in her world conquest. I think she does that to everyone and everything she captures so she won't have anyone to rival against", Kaitoia said.

"And she does it in the cruelest ways. Tortures you most of the time. The first time she tried to wile me over to evil, I was five. But I wasn't like a gullible little human child. My brain was far more advanced, so I had a will and a conscience by the time I was three. So I figured out Narcissa's plan, and it clicked that she was a horrible person, and that I should never join her for anything.

"So then she started to starve me. Then she abused me and I caught all kinds of sicknesses, and she didn't bloody care. I cried all the time.

"Then there's this second thing: the caretaker of the orphanage was so nice to me. She was like a mother, and the children there always swooned over me, and didn't think I was ugly at all. You'd think it'd have been different, me being an alien and all. But When Narcissa came along and adopted me, she terrorized all the other children behind the caretaker's back. And as soon as she held me in her arms, I threw a tantrum and called for my "mother" until I exhausted myself. I was so angry at Narcissa.

"And for that, she will pay…" Kaitoia finished with a hissy growl. Her scarlet eyes made her angry face look all the more menacing.

Megamind smiled just an inkling. They had just talked to each other as if they'd known each other all their life. For some strange reason, Megamind had felt that way as soon as he saw her face. Did his alien kind have some sort of mental connection to identify siblings? It sure seemed that way. It had to be. What other source would the feeling have come from?

Kaitoia's head snapped up as if she'd realized something. Megamind looked at her.

"This is really belated, but where did you get the ability to produce light from your hands?" She said , looking at the orange light Megamind had modeled to float just by both their heads.

"You know naiad chopsticks?" He said with a small laugh at the lateness of her statement. "I stole one and it gave me that weird power, but it's saved a few lifes since I got it, so it's quite useful", he explained. He grabbed the orange glow from the air, and it flickered out, leaving only moonlight shining distortedly from the bubbly glass window. Then he concentrated.

A flurry of light in all colors exploded in curly tendrils from his hand. They illuminated the room more than ever, and Kaitoia looked at the tendrils in awe.

"And they can also do this", Megamind said.

A thick strand of the magic snaked around Kaitoia's arms and lifted her up. She giggled when the light touched her, for it tickled a little. She floated for a few seconds, and then Megamind set her back down.

"That was really amazing!" She breathed as she light retracted back into Megamind's pale palm. He smirked at his sister brightly.

Then another thought occurred to him.

"Kaitoia… do the other Rebels know that you're not really in a prison right now?" Megamind asked.

"Great Scott! No they don't!" The alien beauty said, slapping her great blue forehead.

"Then where have you been all this time, exactly?"

"Following you as much as I could."

"Really?" Megamind was a bit taken aback.

"I think the senses we were born with are stonger for a female sibling, and especially strong if she's a fraternal twin."

"Whoa, whoa, wait! We're twins?", Megamind exclaimed.

"Aren't you thirty-two years old?"

"Yes."

"So am I. You're birthday is December 17th?" "Yes."

"Mine too."

"That's… wow", Megamind had nothing else to say. He could've come up with a better word if he had his large head back, though. And he could've realized it sooner, because Kaitoia had the same sharp, angular jawbone as he did, and when she smiled, she had teeth as white as his own, and her mouth curved up deliciously like his own. In fact, she could almost duplicate his diabolical smile.

Almost.

"So I had this really strange feeling as soon as Narcissa carried you into her ballroom and on that red couch. You were all battered up from the scooter accident, and I wanted to try and help you, but I was afraid of getting caught and getting put back in my prison."

"So you were following…wait, if you were wandering about out of your prison, why didn't you just show yourself to the Rebels and save us some trouble?" Megamind was baffled.

"Because I can't just come bursting out of a hiding place blabbing, "Cheerio, fellow Rebels! Hey Megamind, did you know I'm your sister? I've ben stumbling about outside captivity, following you all because you are my brother, Megamind!".

"And plus, I was deterred of following you when you found the portal to Narcissa's underground part of the jail that stretches for miles. So I just gave up and wallowed in this guest house until you came in and turned human."

Megamind just stared at Kaitoia, beflummoxed at what she just said. It didn't really make sense at all.

"Okaaayyy…" He drawled out slowly. "On another subject… are you going to stay here until I apologize to Megan and Annabelle for taking my anger out on them? And then will you help find the last Rebel?"

"Well, what do you think?" Kaitoia said matter-of factly. "I'm a Rebel, and I have a place in the operation. We should get to sabotaging Narcissa's plan in maybe around a week or two."

"Really?" Megamind said halfheartedly, his upper lip curled in a slight grimace. He and Roxanne had been missing for three days. The people from the hotel were probably starting to wonder.

Minion. He had probably been trying and trying to call Megamind on his cell phone to check on him.

Megamind's cell phone was currently on the bedside table in the hotel room. The silver Samsung probably had a billion messages from Minion on it, and maybe a few calls from the mayor about how he needed to cut his vacation short because of a new villian terrorizing the city.

That was the last thing he needed, but he had a strong feeling a new villain would be nothing in comparison to what Narcissa probably had planned. Besides, new villains in Metro City would be a rare thing.

But Minion. He was probably worried to the point of near death. Literally, because he ws a fish with a delicate little body that could only take so much stress. This made Megamind get stricken with guilt, but disappearing and having a missing persons case being filed aginst him was better than to let the world fall into the hands of a villainous mastermind.

For some reason, an off-topic question came to Megamind's mind.

"Kaitoia? Our parents sent me with Minion to Earth… did they give you a minion?"

Megaming was honestly surprised when tears welled up in her ruby eyes, making them look like real gems. She swiped them away.

"Yes. They gave me something like a domesticated kitten, only she had a few features that differed from an Earth cat. Her fur was silver with a red lightning bolt on her rump, and her eyes were the same as mine. She even had tufts of human-like hair on her head that was styled in curls, and she could talk just like Minion, and her paws worked like fingers, so she had dexterity."

Kaitoia sniffled and blushed purple. "Then… why are you crying?" Megamind asked, placing his pale human hand on her skinny shoulder.

"Her name is Vixen, and Narcissa took her away from me recently. I was allowed to have Vixen in my childhood, but Narcissa decided to confiscete her a few weeks ago for no reason. Who knows what she's doing to her now!"

With that, tears finally dribbled out of Kaitoia's eyes, and Megamind felt very sorry for her. He would feel the same way if Minion was snatched away from him, him being his best friend almost since birth.

"So… do all parents of our kind issue Minions to their children?" Megamind wondered out loud.

"Yes", Kaitoia answered as she stopped crying. "Minions are given to children once the parents determine their son or daughter's personality through DNA testing. A fish represents that the child is headstrong, bold, enthusiastic, alluringly mysterious, and kind. A cat… creature, thingy is stands for a child who is beautiful, spunky, likeable, and brave. It's a very rare thing for a child's minion to be irrelevant to their personalities."

"That's interesting", Megamind commented. "Minion fits me perfectly, then. And Vixen fits you."

Megamind inched a little closer to his sister, but not so close that she was in danger of getting a flu virus. "What exactly was our race called, anyway?" He wondered again.

"Our parents must've never mentioned that. It must've been something that had to do with the color blue… Cyan Ides? Azureas?"

Megamind laughed. "Actually, I think our skin is more cerulean…that is, mine used to be."

"Cerulean?"

"Yes. Come look in the mirror."

Megamind almost closed his clammy hand around Kaitoia's, but remembered he was still sick. She found her own way to the bathroom anyhow. He came with her and they looked in the mirror together.

Megamind looked snarkily at his own reflection, still disliking his human form tremendously. He wanted to be ravagingly angry again, but no energy meant no livid rampages.

Wait, he wanted to rampage? Megamind had actually considered… he thought he was really going wack now.

But he tried forgetting about the thought and looked at his sister's reflection instead. Her red eyes were terribly unique…and did they… glow in the dark a bit?

"Yes… actually, I'd say 73% cerulean if you wanted to be accurate." Kaitoia cocked her head a little at her statement.

"How can you tell?" And then Megamind covered his mouth. He really had become stupid.

And he covered his mouth because the nauseous feeling had come back.

It had come back very strongly.

"Ow, owowow…" Megamind moaned, now sweating again.

"What?" Kaitoia asked worriedly. Megamind's legs went weak, and he had to brace himself on the bathroom counter again.

"I'm sick…I'm going to be sick…" he whimpered. Megamind sank even lower on the counter until his knees dangled over the tile. He started to gag.

"Oh… oh, God", Kaitoia mumbled as she turned away.

And Megamind finally threw up.

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><p>DONE! There was a delay for this chap because my laptop cracked and it had to get fixed. I nearly suffocated from lack of fanfiction. BUT THE COMPUTER IS REBORN! CHAPTER... 24... MUST... WRITE!<p> 


	24. Chapter 24

WOO! Been a while since I've updated! What with knitting my nephew's blanket for Christmas, and me writing a Christmas oneshot, I've been busy. Plus this chapter took a lot of thought. And for you people who liked Eckere, she comes in at the end and gives Megamind a little love. Actually, I've connected her with Gir from Invader Zim, and now I feel like I'm copying or something o_O

Well, anyways enjoy chapter 24! And Kaitoia's and Megamind's little sibling rivalry! :D

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><p>Bleu Leather<p>

Chapter 24

Sunlight on full blast poured into the destroyed room where Megamind and Kaitoia practically had narcolepsy at 2:00 in the morning. It was distorted through the bubbly glass window just as the moonlight had been the night before.

A sunbeam hit Megamind in the eye from where he was sprawled out on the mess of a bed. He squinted irritably, and then his lime green eyes flitted awake.

Only a second it took. He realized that this human form was not a dream. He was still as human as ever, and dangerously close to not being loved by Roxanne anymore. Greasy black hair still clung to his pale forehead in clumps. His waist was still a normal thick, and his skin a common pale peach.

It was truly a horrible reminder of his condition…

But not as horrible as how he felt physichally at the moment.

He couldn't move in the slightest. His limbs were weak and useless. His lips felt slimy. His insides felt about to collapse, and he was struggling for breath.

He… felt sleepy again.

A rustle sounded from the floor on the right side of the bed. Through Megamind's very slitted eyes he saw a perfectly perky Kaitoia rise up from where she had slept.

She half-gasped half-screamed at her brother's state.

"Syx!" she exclaimed in horror. "I can't believe you bloody forgot to take the healing potion!"

So that was what was wrong with him…

"Kaitoia…" Megamind rasped, unable to speak anything beyond a whisper. "Find it."

The alien immediately dove through the wreckage in the room that Megamind was to blame for. Didn't he realize he was dying? It was the fault of the poisoned arrow he had received earlier from Shadow Megamind. He hadn't remembered it would cause him to die in a day. And it was practically hours before he would be a lifeless heap of human. Already, he was incredibly weak and frail.

His shrunken barin was the culprit. Kaitoia realized that the Shadows had probably set him up like this. They knew Megamind's brain woiuld be too small to remember, and they knew that when Andromeda would turn him human, he would be too distracted with greived feelings to even remember his own death sentence. After all, those demon blokes had appeared right in Andromeda's little lair leering over their corresponding Light cousins while the doctress adressed Megamind to take the human potion. It was Kaitoia's best guess that they were in on the whole thing, and that Andromeda was evil after all.

But… if so, then why did she just hand over her Staff at almost no cost to anyone but Megamind? And it had to be the authentic Staff.

Did she know something they didn't?

_Speaking of the Staff,_ Kaitoia thought as she found it right buried underneath the kindling that was once a wooden vanity. She yanked it out with some effort and tossed it onto the bed right next to an ailing Megamind. She could care less about a magic stick at the moment. Where was the vial of healing potion?

Nearby, she winced as Megamind gave a pained moan. Siblings of their kind could feel the other siblings feelings physichally, so compassion and sympathy was easy to come to them when needed

"Please try to hold back, Johnny", Kaitoia said gently as she dug further into the rubble of knickknacks strewn everywhere by Megamind's fit of rage the other day. Nothing was there.

"It better not be broken, or you'll have to lick the floor…!" Kaitoia mused mostly to herself as she gracefully leaped over the whole bed, and over Megamind. She landed with a tremendous thud in all the ruined furniture and burrowed around some more.

Something a transparent bottle green caught her eye in the destruction. She fished around for it, careful not to maim her hand in the broken wood from a half-chopped dresser.

Her hand closed around the smooth glass of the healing potion just as Megamind gave a rather pained groan. Kaitoia lifted the bottle up and looked inside. It was only a fifth full, and she could see dribbles of the mixture trickling down the sides of the bottle.

It had leaked. Luckily the cork hadn't opened further. Kaitoia hoped the trace of antidote would be enough.

"I found it, Johnny!" she cried at last. Kaitoia cringed as she felt a stabbing pain in her side that was where Megamind had gotten wounded yesterday. She was almost brought to tears when she saw how fragile he looked. His skin looked only two shades away from Annabelle's. Even his eyes had turned the color of green paste.

Kaitoia gently sat herself down at Megamind's side and brought the rim of the potion bottle to his lips. He responded only a little; with barely enough strength to swallow the potion himself.

Finally he downed the whole thing. Kaitoia made sure to empty every last drop into his mouth.

She waited.

And waited.

She got spooked when Megamind's eyes simply fluttered closed, but a red glow started to brew under the covers ner his hips where he had been shot.

Open, alert green eyes met her in the next second.

"Thank you…!" Megamind panted. "I was starting to… to… I can't quite describe it."

"You were… slipping out of grasp, so to speak?" Kaitoia guessed.

"Yes", Megamind mumbled, looking down.

Kaitoia looked at her brother with her ruby eyes.

"How did it… feel like?"

"Different than all the other times I've nearly been killed in this ordeal, that's for sure", Megamind answered as best as he could. "I just felt… really tired and like I wanted to sleep… forever is all. I didn't even have enough energy to think…"

"Oh…" Kaitoia breathed. She looked away and stared at an interesting-looking knot in the floor before hastily changing the subject to a more important topic.

"What's our objective today? I can feel Narcissa growing in strength. Aidan needs to be gathered soon."

"I think I know", Megamind strained to remember, since his shrunken brain didn't help much at all. He blew irritably at a stray piece of greasy black hair that had flopped over his eye.

"I'm pretty sure… Well, first we need to make it back to Annabelle's dorm and I have to face Roxanne…"

Kaitoia had a sympathetic look on her face.

"Then we need to ask Eboni a few things and then get Aidan."

Megamind didn't know the rest, but he knew one thing for sure.

There would be a final battle to the death of either the Rebels, or Narcissa for the sake of the world. Megamind was determined to win , as it would do tremendous things for his heroic reputation, and more importantly, he would apparently have saved the entire world from her wrath.

But… when reporters mobbed he and Roxanne about their dissapearance, what would they tell them? Surely he couldn't expose this otherworldly realm of magic to the public. He could just imagine Megan behind glass in a museum, pounding on it endlessly, saying, "Megamind, you god-forsaken TRAITOR!" And that would make him feel rottenly monstrous.

He would deal with it if they lived from this situation they had to take care of.

"Right", Kaitoia confirmed, nodding slightly.

She twisted her plump blue lips to the side of her face when she saw Megamind's state as he rose out of bed. It was not because he was only wearing black boxers (presently, he was blushing up a storm because of it), but because…

Well. She was only estimating, since she didn't have human bodily functions…

It was probably a problem if he stunk slightly from sweating all last night, because that was how human bodies worked. And his hair was starting to look like Professor Snape's in the Harry Potter movies.

And… was that a _pimple_ right near his left temple?

"Kaitoia, what are you doing?" Megamind wondered out loud as she pushed him to the small bathroom in the destroyed room.

"Johnny boy, you need a shower like bloody heck", his alien sister chuckled. "I may not be human, but I know when they should clean themselves up. When they start to _stink_."

"What?" Megamind squealed, failing to hide his embarrassment. As an alien, Megamind had only ever known natural musk, not body odor. He guessed his kind didn't have it.

Man, did he hate being human.

"Hey, I need my clothes for when I finish!" Megamind reminded his sister while he finally managed to shrug her off of himself.

She stole a look around the room. She saw no clothes.

"Ask Annabelle, because I'm not going to dive back into the rubble that _you_ created."

"W—what?" Megamind stammered. Kaitoia smirked.

"That's right. To get your precious clothes, you need to apologize both to her and Megan for frightening them so much. You are not the type to lose your temper like that", she said, remembering his little confession he had made to her the night before.

"Pleh", Megamind moaned, wondering how he was both annoyed and awed at the same time by his sister.

Ok. He was fully showered and the only thing covering him was a towel. What kind of presentation was that when he was supposed to make a decent apology to two tween girls?

Grr… stupid Kaitoia for not at least trying to get him his clothes.

"You're finally finished, little brother?" Kaitoia called from behind the closed door of the bathroom.

Why did this comment irk Megamind off so much? "Since when was I a LITTLE brother, huh?" he retorted.

"Arg, forget it!" Kaitoia growled, annoyed. "Come out here."

Megamind stepped forward, with a firm grip on the skimpy towel around his waist and turned the doorknob…

Only to scream like a girl at the sight in front of him.

"It's okay girls…" Kaitoia chided to Megan and Annabelle as she patted them both on the head. They looked kind of flustered at Megamind, not because of the towel being to only thing covering him, but because they were still worried about his behavior last night. He would not have normally done that.

Kaitoia gave the girls a gentle push forward to face Megamind, and then transfixed him with her stern red eyes that practically yelled, "Apologize this INSTANT! How could you have done this to two little girls?"

Megamind swallowed noisily and felt immidiately horrible when he saw Annabelle and Megan avoid his gaze completely. Awkward silence filled the air, nearly choking everyone with the thickness.

Come on. Megamind had to say something.

"Girls. I' 'msorry!" Megamind apologized at the speed of light, since he wasn't exactly the master of apologizing.

Amazingly, the two girls understood his gibberish. He tried a sheepish smile at them when they finally met his gaze, and they smiled back.

"I'd hug you but I don't want to jostle your towel", Megan laughed, reverted back to her wisecracking old self.

"I understand. You were frustrated, and angry and depressed, and no one can live with those feelings more over a lifetime…" Annabelle said, thinking about her own life. _I can sympathize for sure, Megamind,_ she thought.

Then Megamind looked up at glared at his sister through slitted eyes, obviously egging her on to deliver his clothes. Kaitoia met his dagger eyes with a now purely innocent, "I don't think I can find them, really!"

"Annabelle, please give me some clothes since Kaitoia lost the ones you gave me yesterday", Megamind said, still scowling at his sister.

"With pleasure…" Annabelle mumbled as she simply stood and thought for a moment, then jabbed a finger at him, and then he no longer had to wear the towel.

Megamind removed the thin, skimpy thing from his hips and saw something that he truly didn't expect. Annabelle had given him the same outfit as last night!

"Annabelle!" he feigned mortal shock. "Knowing you, you would never give yourself or ANYONE the same outfit twice!"

Annabelle reclined on the edge of the bed, her eyes partly covered by her winged helmet. Megamind's humorous face slowly faded. Annabelle looked kind of…troubled.

"I'm just feeling… well—something's wrong." Annabelle flicked her helmet back up on her head.

"Whenever I use that musical power of mine, a sort of inner sense forever latches onto that person…and sometimes I can feel what they're feeling, or what's happening around them, and sometimes even sense what they're doing. But it's very faint."

"So…?" Megamind could detect bad news coming up.

"Narcissa is growing stronger. She's been saving her power up to try to take over the world for centuries. But she's always stopped by different rebellious prisoners who know what the heck they're doing. Every fifty years, she has enough power for an attempt at world conquest, and now she plans them more securely than ever. I'm just…scared that… this time she might…"

Annabelle faltered, shaking her head. "We need to plan this uprise as best as we can. Or Earth will fall victim to Narcissa, of all people."

Megamind had a question on the tip of his tongue, but he held back. He remembered what Kaitoia had shared with him last night. They talked a little bit about that nagging, mysterious reason as to why Narcissa was so ruthless. Megamind had given it some thought, but he stayed stuck.

Even though his head had shrunken considerably, he wasn't stupid. The one little thing Kaitoia had told him about… the fits of rage Narcissa had gone into in Kaitoia's younger years caught his attention. There was a reason to this. Megamind had had a reason, and then he worked it out back in his evil days.

What was Narcissa's reason for being evil?

"Annabelle…" Megan mumbled consolingly. She strided over to her friend and touched a hand to her shoulder. "We will do our absolute best. I've been yearning for a day when Narcissa would be deterred ever since I first met her. Happy endings don't have to be in just movies."

Annabelle smiled at the disabled fairy, her violet eyes gleaming. Megamind could tell she wanted to believe her. But happy ending or not, there would be war.

"So… Johnny, how did you find Kaitoia last night?" Annabelle switched the subject, and her tone rose to something around suspiscion.

Megamind was only confused at Annabelle calling him Johnny for a moment before he realized ha was not to be called Megamind until he reverted back to just that. "Well… she found me. And then we… worked everything out and… she's—she's my sister." Megamind fumbled a few times before stating the obvious.

"We know", the cloudsprite and Megan replied simultaneously. "We just couldn't tell you until we had Kaitoia for proof. You'd have thought we were wack", Megan said as she twirled a rubber-gloved finger around her temple.

"But here's the proof", Kaitoia announced and pointed to herself. Megamind's sister bent down from where she was sitting on the bed, dug through some of the destruction Megamind had made, and found his De-Gun and holowatch. She stood back up and handed the things to her brother, who took them and started to fiddle with the strap of the watch after holstering his gun.

"So… do we go back to Annabelle's dorm now?" Megamind wondered aloud. His voice was in danger of cracking, for there was the lingering reminder that Roxanne would probably not be attracted to him anymore. Andromeda. She was such a… such a…

"Yes. Then we'll gather information from Eboni", Megan replied.

"After that, planning for Aidan's retrieval starts…"

"And then come the battle plans", Kaitoia finished.

Megamind nodded briskly. He knew the world was in jeopardy unless they took care of it.

Kaitoia walked over to a corner of the room where the Staff had been placed and tried to grab hold of it.

But she screamed when it severely shocked her hand.

"Kaitoia!" Megan exclaimed, clapping her hand to her mouth.

"What? I sense that something bad just happened", Megamind commented. He knew nothing about that Staff except that it would help defeat Narcissa.

Kaitoia sucked on her burnt palm, now very red from the burn. "Owwww…" she whined.

"My god… it's never done that before…"

"You mean it hasn't belonged to Andromeda this whole time…?" Megamind deduced.

Kaitoia looked up at the human-turned alien. "No. It used to be mine, a long long time ago, before the Rebels were formed."

"Why didn't you tell me this last night, Kai?" Megamind moaned, throwing his head back in frustration at the things that were being kept from him. What was the explanation this time?

"Don't call me that", the alien muttered. "Ok. I don't care if this comes out suddenly, but you ought to be used to sudden things what with you've been through, Syx."

"Uh huh…?"

Kaitoia inhaled, still massaging her burn. "I'm a mage, you know."

Megamind blinked. "I believe you", he simply said, but with a bewildered look in his eyes.

"And for bigger spells, I need a staff to concentrate my energy… but it looks like… it doesn't want me anymore."

"And that means that this Staff has grown tired of serving Kaitoia", Megan explained. "It needs to move on down her bloodline…"

Megamind's eyebrows were about to fly off of his human forehead.

"And that means you're next, Megamind."

Him? A mage? Worthy of being a mage all this time? How could he not have even known?

Megamind stood there, looking from Kaitoia to Megan to Annabelle and back. It went on for what seemed like ages before Annabelle strode over to that Staff, grabbed it, and as she held it out to Megamind, it was almost magnetized to him.

And once it was in his hands, the orb with the swirling purple smoke started to spin. And it emmitted a hazy orange glow for a moment before it stopped.

"There", Kaitoia said. "It will only work for you now until it gets tired of you and moves on to your children, or someone else who deserves it."

Megamind listened to his sister and finally drank in all that had just happened.

He was a mage. It was laid down solidly. A mage. Even after the cold shock of discovery back at Narcissa's little guest house, Megamind could hardly believe his fate while he and the girls led the way back to the ivy-ensnared wall that led to Annabelle's dorm. Actually, he could hardly believe two things.

One: he had inherited the Staff and was now a mage.

Two: this human form and all that came with it. Especially the expanding, empty feeling that grew bigger as they drew nearer to Annabelle's dorm. The feeling that made Megamind's stomach go nauseous again because he was anticipating rejection by Roxanne. Certainly not the first time he'd been turned down all his pitiful little life, but being turned down by his first girlfriend… what with his history had to do with this, it would not go over well.

And he had to try not to think about what would happen between them at this current moment, because it was mixing with all the questions he had to ask Kaitoia about being a mage. He shunned the worry out of his thinking for now, and took a look at the Staff, warm and rigid in his hands. He could feel the energy it carried through his gloves. It was practically begging to be used; to test out the power of its new owner and help another mage.

Which brought the first question to Megamind's head.

"Kaitoia."

"Hmm?" his sister hummed as he met her ruby eyes. Megamind glanced at Megan and Annabelle, talking amongst themselves and leading he way back to the dorm where three Rebels awaited. "Can you tell me more about mages?"

"If I told you everything, I could go ranting on for ages…" she mused. "But I will tell you the basics."

Megamind took another look a the pulsating Staff. It was almost as if the thing were alive.

"I have a question. If you said before that this Staff chooses a person with a correct bloodline to inherit this thing, how did Andromeda get hold of it?"

"Andromeda used a powerful spell to sort of put the Staff to sleep. Magical artifacts, such as wands and talismans usually have little minds of their own. And personalities. If powerful enough hexes are cast on those things, they can be controlled into doing almost anything; like really strong hypnotism. Andromeda managed to sedate the Staff, and then it lost all sense of who it served."

"So she was able to channel magic through it by force", Megamind summed up.

Kaitoia stuck her pink tongue out a little before further explaining. "But there is one catch that comes with putting an artifact to sleep", she said as an edge crept into her voice. "Not only does it require a lot of power, but it also makes the spells the artifact casts irreversible. So you are very lucky that Andromeda didn't hex you."

Megamind shivered at the thought of an extra appendage or antennae forever. He was glad he hadn't ticked her off. He was just an innocent victim.

Kaitoia kept talking. "Plus, it takes so much power to put an artifact to sleep, it takes a tiny piece of your soul to do it."

Megamind looked at the Staff. Actually, he stared at the orb with swirling purple smoke.

"So… what's in this orb exactly…?" he asked.

"The souls of all the people who had no right to take control this Staff. Plus little tiny bits of the other people's souls who cast the spell and lived to tell aout it", Kaitoia answered.

Megamind swallowed. He was holding a Staff that contained souls that could belong to anyone. THAT was not creepy at all…

"Narcissa and Andromeda have been tampering with magical items for quite some time. And that's only one of the reasons why they're so crazed and cruel. You know, they only have to do it a few more times until they are drained of their souls."

A theory occurred to Megamind, and it started lifting his spirits fast.

"Don't they die if they're souls are gone completely?" and then, for probably the third time, Megamind cursed his darn human brain for not realizing that Narcissa and the doctress were not stupid enough to allow that to happen.

"Nope", Kaitoia replied bluntly. She advised Megamind about the stepping stones coming up before he trudged into Narcissa's pond, and then kept talking.

"When one's soul is completely gone… they continue to live, but they're not quite the same. They don't communicate well, and if they have a current ambition, they keep on doing it and doing it until they die. They sort of become… autistic, so to speak. But loss of a soul doesn't deter any power or capabilities they might have already. If Narcissa's soul leaves, she won't get any more vulnerable."

"Hm", Megamind muttered. He looked again at the Staff in his hands. Hesitantly, he took his right hand from the throat of the stick and tapped the swirling purple orb at the top. It vibrated ever so slightly at his touch. Kaitoia was right; this thing was practically alive.

Megamind felt a compelling urge to do something with this staff. But he had no remote clue what. He knew even less how he should use it. He had gotten used to other people preforming magic, but he could never imagine himself doing any besides the power he already could produce from his palms. It was easy to control that.

He was not so sure about the Staff. He knew only a little about mages. He knew what they were, and had once tried a free trial of World of Warcraft to see what they could do.

But that was just a game. This was real life.

"Kaitoia, what was it like being a mage?" Megamind asked another question.

Kaitoia inhaled. "It's kind of hard to explain. All mages are worthy of phenomenal cosmic power, but almost all can't reach deep enough into their being to sort of scoop out that capability. It comes with a large risk. The process of harnessing all reaches of your possible power has a 98% chance of failing and killing you slowly and painfully. It's better if you just accept the amount of power you can manage."

Megamind raised his eyebrows in interest. "Is there more?"

Kaitoia smiled softly at he brother. It was partly out of love, and partly out of knowing.

"Much more that you could imagine, Syx."

Megamind's first ever spell cast with the Staff. It was just as Kaitoia had described it; possibly even more than that.

And it had come without Megamind having to think about it very much, which could be bad, because that was in the likelyhood of his spells getting out of control. He'd have to ask for lessons from Kaitoia before he hurt someone.

But it was a bit painful.

"Point the Staff at the floor when we're about six feet away from it!" Kaitoia had said after they fell through the portal that led back to Annabelle's dorm. "If you completely concentrate on generating a forcefield to catch us, it will happen. Focus is key!"

So Megamind readied himself for his practice spell. As miscellaneous objects whizzed by him in the portal, he made them oblivious. He made everything else he was thinking about in his small human head disappear.

Until he only saw white.

Then he chanted in his head, _forcefield, forcefield, forcefield._

And then an explosion of color that was so surprising, so powerful, it felt like his skull was exploding instead.

Then the strangest thing happened. In the brief moments that followed, his senses were disabled. No taste, touch, sight, smell, or hearing. Not even his little "sixth sense", so he very quickly couldn't even sense the girls around him. He was just breathing and thinking.

But luckily that didn't last very long. And the shock of having all his sense slammed back into him reverberated around everyone as a forcefield so they wouldn't tear any ligaments as they landed on the intricate carpeted floor of Narcissa's mansion.

The milky white shield looked like a Patronus. Megamind had expected landing on the small forcefield to be noisy, but it was silent. Megan, Annabelle, and Kaitoia had also refrained from screaming.

They all knew that you could never be too safe, and that Narcissa herself could be patrolling the halls and lurking around for any signs of the Rebels up to trouble.

But the Rebels did not know what she was really planning.

Kaitoia silently congratulated Megamind for his first spell ever cast, and he managed a weak smile. He focused on the forcefield disappearing, and it was sucked back into the orb where it was originated.

And Megamind felt the sinking feeling again. He knew what was going to come as soon as Annabelle led them to her dorm. He'd have to deal with Roxanne.

This was going to turn out very bad. He knew it.  
>"It's locked", Annabelle announced. "And the spell Alohamora won't work for this one."<p>

Megan gave her friend a, "dude, seriously" look. "Fiction. That's fiction. I know how to do it", she muttered, lightly pushing Annabelle away from the double dorm doors. She set an Invader Zim hand on the copper handle and gripped it until her knuckles were white under her gloves. She muttered a small spell under her breath, and Megamind could hear the soft clicking of the unlocking metal in the door.

"Get in! Quick!" Megan hissed as Megamind, Kaitoia, and Annabelle did as they were told.

Megamind stopped at once, not at the loudness of the fairy slamming and locking the door, but at the sight before him.

Yes, Eboni was there… reclining on Annabelle's futon by the bed.

Licking her fingernails clean of red liquid.

And on the bed, Roxanne lay with her eyes shut and twisted in a painful position.

There was a red stain on her neck.

Megamind opened his mouth to scream, but Eboni stopped licking her fingers and—she _floated_—over to Megamind in a blur, slapping his mouth closed.

"I know what i' looks like. Les' jus' say I'm not a p'fessional with cranberry juice. Sorry 'bout your girlfriend's neck", she assured him in somewhat of a New Jersey accent.

Eboni removed her hand from Megamind's mouth and landed back on the floor to observe him.

"So… you're the new recruit? Megamind, is it?"

"Yes…" he said slowly, relieved that the vampire hadn't bitten Roxanne out of desperate hunger, or anything.

"Name's Eboni. Do' wear it out."

"Ok…" Megamind said. This girl really had a way of shortening her sentences.

His eyes wandered over to where Roxanne was curled up in the bed, more likely napping than suffering from a vampire bite. Tears threatened to fall if Megamind thought about what would inevitably come between them, but he did not want to cry anymore. He had cried enough.

So he looked back at the vampire. Her skin was as white as Annabelle's, hair bobbed and streaked with white. Her lips were plump and bruise-colored. Her combat boots were unique and covered in chains and buckles with a thick sole and two-inch heels.

Through that, she looked twelve years old like the rest of the Rebels.

And now Megamind could see her sharp white fangs a little more clearly. They were stained a pinkish color from her cranberry juice she had been cleaning up from her fingers before. They were neat and sharp and shining with her saliva. They actually looked kind of pretty peeking out from her top lip and pressing down a little on her bottom lip.

"Megamind! This is Eboni. Now we only have to get Aidan and then we can…" Megan was interrupted when a familiar metallic voice rang out from Annabelle's loft.

"ECKERE! Get back here!" the cloudsprite shouted to the cyborg as she chased after her.

"WEEEEEEEE…"

Megamind looked up dumbfounded and saw Annabelle almost tumble over the railing of the loft when she reached out to grab Eckere, now spinning around in the air randomly by her rocket feet. They weren't actually rockets though; they were hovering devices that emitted little blue elipses from her conic feet as they made her hover.

She was definitely malfunctioned.

"WEEEEEHOO! I'M FLYING! I'M FLYIIIIIING!" she squealed. To everyone's horror, she made a rather loud bang as she rammed her insectlike head against the wall multiple times.

"Eckere, STOP!" Annabelle shouted. For once, Eckere did stop and look at the princess with innocence. She hovered over to her at the loft and smiled cutely at her.

"You look like you showered in flour! I LIKE FLOUR!" Eckere squeaked. She lunged for Annabelle and started to lick her face—did robots have _tongues?_—randomly.

Annabelle screamed her head off. "HELP MEEEEEEEE…"

Megamind was completely befuddled. There was no way he could fix Eckere while he had a small cranium. It had already been hard when he was an alien, so trying to do it now would most likely result in his eyes going opposite directions if he so much as looked at a circuit board.

Annabelle wriggled out of the robot's grasp and bolted down the stairs by sliding down the rail. She dove under the bed that Roxanne was sleeping on to hide from Eckere.

The cyborg followed, but stopped to gaze at Megamind for a moment. Her eyes turned from sky blue to silver.

And she walked over to him normally!

Megamind knew from the proximity of her that she was scanning him again. When she finished, she blinked and said, "Megamind… why did you take the potion?"

The voice was so small and meek and innocent. It was not relevant to the noises she had been making moments ago.

And he knew that she had malfunctioned, so he'd just tell her in the easiest way possible.

"Eckere… The Voodoo woman put me under a spell to make me believe that Roxanne didn't love me anymore", he said slowly.

Eckere's LED lights widened. They stayed silver. "But Roxanne does love you! Very much! I even scanned part of her brain to see if she was telling the truth, and she was!"

"Really?" Megamind breathed with a little hopefulness creeping back into his voice. He didn't know what to believe. His still lingering doubt was not because of the small enchantment put on him, (it had already dissipated) but because trust was starting to ebb away slowly. Megamind and Roxanne's relationship had been built on gaining trust, as Megamind had learned from experience that it was almost impossible to trust just anyone.

And since he knew Roxanne would not love him with so much changed about him, even though he knew it was reasonable not to love him anymore like this, he was starting to revert back to his old self, where he had been nervous and stiff in the early days of dating Roxanne. And Roxanne didn't want that to happen.

So how would she take his new form?

Megamind looked back at the cyborg. "What happened… when she appeared back here with Eboni?"

Megamind had to get a good answer out of her before her eyes turned blue again. "She tried hard not to cry, and said it was beneath her, but then she did start crying over you and worrying. I kept Eboni away from her, because she was being a grouch and telling Roxanne to suck it up, but I protected her."

Eckere clutched at her head, trying to keep her rational part intact, and her eyes a serious silver.

"She's going to be asleep for a while. Eboni said she's recovering from the trauma of the day, so she'll most likely wake up when all of us are asleep… and that will be the best time for you to sort out the problem you have", she said sadly. The expression on her face was surprisingly heartbreaking.

"Yeah…" Megamind sighed.

To a bit of his surprise, Eckere stepped forward and hugged him apologetically. "My artificial intelligence chip and data from scanning you can physically feel your pain, Megamind. So I can sympathize for you and anyone", she whimpered. Her eyes finally reverted back to blue, but her sadness did not shift. In fact, Megamind could see _water_ pooling under her eyes! Robots could cry?

Reluctantly, he let go of Eckere and hung his head so her face would not jab at his heart. Eckere simply hovered back up to the loft silently, and Megamind was left with a still cowering Annabelle, a sleeping Roxanne, and a languishing Eboni.

He had so much to go through with tonight. And not to mention what they still needed to do. Get Aidan, and then they would be on their own to figure out how to wage the final war against Narcissa.

But even though the two major things the Rebels needed to accomplish were scary, and not to mention deadly, Megamind felt more scared to face Roxanne when she woke up. Scared, because he totally anticipated what would happen. Rejection, just as she had done with him that night in the rain after his Bernard disguise was blown. And even though Megamind knew that had been his fault almost entirely, this time he had been forced into a dilemma. It was Andromeda's fault, but Roxanne would most likely make it seem like his fault, whether she meant to or not. He was human. Almost everything had changed about him.

Megamind said it to himself once, and he would say it again. Under no circumstances was he to cry anymore. As Roxanne had said to herself, Megamind now considered it beneath him.

But it was so hard to hold back, especially when Megamind possessed an inhuman quality that would make him so deeply depressed and empty if there was no cure for his human form.

He needed Roxanne. And only her. There was no way around it. All was lost for him if there was no cure.

* * *

><p>DUN DUN DUN. I'm working fast on chapter 25 where Megamind and Roxanne... err... get in a tussle, so to speak. But it's kind of hard to think with music blasting in my ears from my earbuds, because I LOVE music and I don't like to type without it.<p>

EE! What the heck is with my brain? I'm listening to the Monster High Fright song and somehow imagining the Bleu Leather cast dancing along to it XD Well, the way I'm imagining human Megamind dancing to it, hes pretty hawt... but this song would be too girly for him most Except it's starngely fitting... because he feels like a monster and all...

SQUEAL. My image of Megamind dancing will NOT STOP! I can barely type now from fangirlishness and from laughing so hard! If you really want to know the exact image at this current moment... fine. He's shirtless like he was in the beginning (XDD) and he has impossibly long legs like the cartoons along with platform boots, and dancing JUST LIKE Frankie is! It's hot when you think about it! AND HILARIOUS! XD

I'll update soon! As soon as I get dancy Megs and breakdancing Kaitoia OUT OF MY HEAD SO I STOP LAUGHING... RAINBOW CHEETO UNICORNS!


	25. Chapter 25

Merry Christmas my fellow fanfic readers! Since I probably will be caught up in the chaos of Christmas for the next few days, there won't be another chapter until probably January. I know a lot of you have been waiting to see Roxanne's reaction to human Megamind (And your'e probably exploding right now, TotallySuperDuper XD) so here it is! I feel horrible for doing this to him! -.-

* * *

><p>Bleu Leather<p>

Chapter 25

Night. It covered Paris like a cloak of pure black; as black as Eboni's name. It was wide, open, and shimmering with stars like little rhinestones suspended in the vast amount of space.

And Megamind had been stationed at Annabelle's veranda, gazing longingly at them and trying not to think about Roxanne, who was still napping, but was waking up very soon. Everyone else was asleep, and Eboni had chosen Annabelle's closet to sleep in, hanging by the rail inside it like a bat. Megamind wondered if she really could transform into a bat like most vampire legends claimed. She had said that most of the vampire stereotypes humans have were complete garbage. They didn't know what real vampires were like, and vampires were not about to show themselves and prove anything.

Megamind wasn't tired. He had much too much on his mind. Roxanne, the fact that he had magical powers besides the light strands that came from his hands, and he was also silently yearning that there was a cure for the human form he was in.

He had the Staff in hand. Whenever he held it, the Staff always golwed and pulsated warmly in his hands as if it were alive. And it seemed to like him. It also wanted to try out its new master and cast a spell.

Megamind would need practice if he was to cast more than a milky white forcefield.

He looked back at nighttime Paris. It was so pretty. Lights, cars, and interesting noises everywhere. He could even see the Eiffel Tower in the distance.

It reminded him of two nights ago when he had been snuggling and consoling Roxanne after being introduced to this otherworldly place. Re-creating the feeling of her was hopeless, as he could only worry about what would happen when she woke up.

Which had to be pretty soon. So Megamind stood up from the small bench he'd been sitting on, took one last look at the world, and went back inside Annabelle's dorm.

He shut the door behing him. It was dead silent, and nearly pitch black even with the Staff casting a faint glow. He held it close to himself, as it was also kind of chilly.

Megan and Annabelle alseep in the bed in the loft. Kaitoia alsleep on the couch downstairs. Eboni in the closet, Eckere—locked—in her storage cabinet, and Roxanne about to wake up on the bed downstairs.

Megamind drew closer to the rail that encircled the loft. His heart thudded at once from fear, and in this dark he could see his chest pulsating as his ribcage heaved.

Roxanne was awake. And she was in the middle of the floor, looking straight up at Megamind.

Megamind winced and moved the glowing Staff away from his face so she wouldn't see what had become of him just yet. He needed to ease her into it first. He did not want any sudden anything at a time like this.

"H—hi", Megamind said meekly in a semi-quiet voice. He bashfully played with the tendrils of his midnight hair that was still taking some getting used to.

"Who are you?" Roxanne hissed. Megamind flinched. He had forgotten that his voice had also changed during the transformation yesterday, and the fact that Roxanne now did not recognize him hurt.

"Roxanne, dear, it's ok. It's me", Megamind tried to assure her. "Stay down there… I'll come to you."

Megamind slowly made his way down the spiral stairs of the loft, the glowing Staff illuminating the way. Roxanne watched as he descended, but kept her guard up in case it was a trick of some sort.

Finally he reached the floor. Roxanne still did not see his face; only his gloved hands that she knew did not belong to her Megamind.

Said person drew closer to her. She recoiled a few times, not knowing it was him.

But he stopped within a few inches of her face. And then the glowing orb of the Staff was directly perched under his angular chin.

Roxanne stared dumbfounded for a few seconds before gasping a little. It had to be Megamind. The human had his exact same face, and exact same electrifying green eyes no other being could have.

But… he had hair. Mountains of thick shaggy black hair. And a small human head, paired along with pale peach skin, and a thicker body.

A different voice.

But Roxanne felt that it was certainly him, because the only clues she had was his face which remained the same, and the eyes.

The eyes that were shiny and sober and ashamed. It was more than his simple kicked-puppy dog face. It was ten times that, and much more serious.

Megamind took his eyes from the ground and looked at Roxanne. The emotion in her eyes was complete confusion.

"Megamind…"

"I've changed. A lot." He managed to say.

"I can see that…"

To his utter, utter surprise,Roxanne leaned forward and kissed him softly on the lips. He weakly kissed her back, afraid to deepen the kiss if she didn't want it.

She broke away with their mouths making a light smacking sound. She still had the confused look in her eyes, and now it looked almost unsure.

"You feel… different."

"I know I do", Megamind mumbled. He didn't have his blue alien lips anymore. They were thin and pink like any normal human's. Was there really that big of a difference between human and alien lips?

"How much has changed about you, exactly?" Roxanne asked curiously.

"Well, for one, half my brain has been lost, and the amount I had as an alien makes me seem stupid now", Megamind explained, then quickly added, "Not that you're stupid! I'm insulting myself…"

Roxanne looked at him for a long time before she was finally able to ask, "What's sixty-two times forty-eight?"

Megamind thought about it, but could not answer. "I don't know", he said meekly.

"Fourteen times twenty?"

"I don't know."

Roxanne tried to hide the horrified look on her face. It was just as Megamind had forseen earlier. If one person had changed this much, then their partner had a slim chance of loving them back.

As much as she did not want to admit it, she was losing feelings for him. Even though she reminded herself it was what Andromeda wanted to happen by Megamind taking the potion.

Roxanne was now starting to feel exactly how Megamind had felt when he had first taken in his new form. Torn between feeling heartbroken, depressed, or enraged. Just as Andromeda had planned.

But… could it be fixed? Was there a cure to revert him back to his true self?

Megamind's eyes drifted back to the floor. He couldn't bring himself to look Roxanne in the eye. He was also afraid of a bad reaction he might have if he got rejected. Just…scared.

"Megamind…"

"Megan suggested that I go by Johnny now that I'm human", Megamind reminded her a little more tersely than he wanted to, as he was currently thinking about all the ways Andromeda could be…_punished_ for this. And that was just putting it bluntly.

"Johnny." Roxanne repeated incredulously. At last, she sparked out of her dumbfounded state at his appearance.

"I'm sorry. I feel like I was tasered with the shock of this", Roxanne admitted, screwing her mouth to the side and looking Megamind up and down. If he were to deal with this the right way, he'd have to look her in the face, so he forced himself to. The shame in his eyes could not be hidden.

"Roxanne… Megan said there might be a cure for my human form along the way to get the last Rebel."

"She did?" Roxanne asked half-hopefully, knowing the possibility of it being too good to be true.

"Notice I said 'might'", Megamind put in sadly.

"And what if there is no cure?" Roxanne asked, dreading the answer, if any.

Megamind couldn't answer, and the more he thought about this, the more upset and hopeless he became.

Suddenly, it had gotten a little bit too much for him and he dropped to his knees like a groveling child. His tiny human brain had less tolerance for strong feelings. As an alien, his feelings were well-spoken unless not shown at all, especially potent ones, because his brain had more room to deal with them all.

Great. He was turning into a desperate, insensitive, potentionally crazy monster.

"Roxanne just… tell me everything you're thinking right now. What you think I've become. I'm not what I was, and you probably have lost a lot of feelings for me in the minutes that've passed, but… oh heck with it, what are you thinking at this moment? About me? And tell the truth."

Roxanne found it exceedingly difficult to lie to those kicked-pupppy dog eyes. And these were genuine, pained puppy-dog eyes.

But she didn't want to offend him… especially since she was his first love. And they'd only been together for a month or so.

Roxanne winced. If he wanted the truth… he'd get it.

She knelt down in front of Megamind so their knees touched. With a deep breath, she tried to admit what was going on in her mind and break it gently to him.

"Ok, then here's the honest answer", she succumbed tearfully.

Megamind looked at her with an anticipating wince slicing his features.

"I'm not going to blame you for any of this, because you did it under influence. But… exactly how much of your brain have you lost?"

"Half", Megamind answered quickly to get it over with. "Possibly even more. I can't repair Eckere, do anything beyond set and shoot my De-Gun, or anything advanced that I used to be able to do."

Roxanne tried not to widen her eyes in surprise, but failed. Her Megamind was not like that. Of course he hadn't turned completely stupid, but around his standards he used to have, his intelligence had dropped extremely.

"Have you lost… anything else?" she asked slowly.

Megamind took his breath in sharply. He didn't want to be annoyed with her, but for some reason he was. She wasn't even doing anything! Why did humans get irritated so easily?

"I have. I don't know how to put it exactly, but… I lost some of the alien qualities that were beyond a human's, which is me—what I am now", Megamind fumbled, accidentally proving his point.

"I don't understand", Roxanne mumbed shyly.

"I told you I didn't know how to put it!" Megamind suddenly hissed and jumped to his feet. "I can't express my feelings the right way in this body, and… nobody's going to understand me the right way anymore… I'm so frustrated!"

Megamind clapped a hand over his mouth after he had cried the last sentence out a little louder than necessary. Then he grumbled and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"I'm sorry", he quickly amended. "I understand if you don't want me anymore. My human form is making me such an idiot…"

Roxanne stood up and rested a hand on his broad shoulder, making him turn around to face her. He held the Staff between both of them for more light.

"Well… the feeling I have right now is hard to describe", Roxanne admitted as she twisted a tendril of short hair in her fingers.

"It can't be harder to explain that it is for me", Megamind growled. Then he slapped his forehead again for the tone of voice he was using right now. Stupid human form…!

"M—_Johnny_, listen to me", Roxanne said firmly. "Try to control your temper. I'm trying to explain what's going on in my head, and it's complicated."

"Go ahead please, get it over with", Megamind pleaded in a clamer, gentler tone.

Roxanne stroked Megamind's cheek and said, "Please don't assume I'm going to reject you directly. I don't know where all of this will go. If there's something that'll turn you back into an alien, then everythign will be fine."

"And if there isn't?" Megamind demanded.

"I'll get to that after I explain what's going on in my head right now. No getting off topic", Roxanne instructed.

She took a breath and chose her words carefully. The last thing she wanted was to accidentally pick a fight over this.

"Well… you're definitely not what you used to be, but let me remind you again, I'm not blaming you for any of this, because that'd be heartless."

"Get to the point!" Megamind groveled, only a tad annoyed, but dying to know what Roxanne thought of his form.

"Ok. I feel… disappointed. You don't have your old qualities, voice, and you definitely don't look like your old self except for your face."

"Yeah. I know…" Megamind sighed. "Anything else? Your list can go on for as long as you like."

"Don't talk like that Johnny, please", Roxanne said a little more firmly. She was not liking his attitude.

"And… If there is a cure for your conditon, then everything will be fine", Roxanne added. Then her face fell, and she bit her lip uncertainly.

"Go on, I know what you'll say next…" Megamind moaned, kicking at the butt of the Staff.

"I really wish you'd stop being such a pessimist!" Roxanne scolded angrily.

"Well, I'm sorry, but this human form doesn't exactly help me deal with feelings properly!" Megamind retorted. "Didn't I say that to you about a few minutes ago? I thought you weren't going to blame any of this on me."

"I'm not!" Roxanne bowed her head, knowing she had said the wrong thing, but he was being difficult. He was not normally sulky and crybabyish like this.

"Just.. please stop being all negative. I don't like the attitude."

"What attitude?" Megamind demanded.

"Never mind!" Roxanne gave up, throwing her hands in the air.

"Ok, sheesh… if there is no cure to turn you back… I think… we're…"

Roxanne couldn't finish the sentence. If she was going to love Megamind, he couldn't stay this different. But she did not want to break up with him, because that was what Andromeda wanted her to do. Andromeda had wanted this exact thing to happen.

But she couldn't lie to herself. These feelings hadn't been inflicted by any artificial ways. And she needed to be truth ful to him. Not offensive, but just truthful.

"Megamind… I really did not want this to happen, but if you can't turn back into yourself… I don't think we can… keep going", Roxanne finally said, hoping he'd get the hint.

Megamind's green eyes met hers, and she could practically see the brightness draining out of them like a computer battery. He had no expression anywhere except in those mezmerizing orbs.

"Please… Megan is usually right. This will work out", Roxanne reassured, hugging Megamind consolingly. He felt so weird now that he was much thicker than he used to be.

He hugged her back weakly. He had nothing to say. He didn't want to bring up anything more, or give her any unpleasant attitude she didn't want.

Of course Megamind's head was spinning with the possibility that he'd lose Roxanne forever, but he was also thinking about Andromeda. How he was going to maim her for this if he couldn't return back to his true form. It was way beyond despicable. There was no exact word to describe it.

But how long would it take to find a cure, if any? Days? Would it overlap on the time they needed to stop Narcissa's plan?

Megamind wasn't sure he'd survive.

Roxanne came apart from the embrace. She had to choke back an anguished sob at how miserable he looked. He was not making eye contact.

"Well… I'm going to go to sleep", Roxanne declared, failing at hiding the crack in her voice. She took big strides to Annabelle's bed she had been sleeping in before, and wrapped herself in the covers. She turned away from Megamind, and two tears dribbled onto the pillow.

Meanwhile, Megamind was still standing in the middle of the room. The Staff's previous orange glow had died down to a dull blue, and was slowly getting dimmer the sadder Megamind got.

What if he lost Roxanne?

What if he was cursed to be a human forever?

What would he do with his life then?

Megamind hid his face in his hands and dropped down to the floor. The Staff toppled over with a muffled thump on the carpet, its glow completely gone.

Megamind would most likely die of unhappiness.

Something had been carried on with his human form when he had transformed. It was a quality that only allowed him to choose one mate for the rest of his life, and that had been Roxanne from the very first time they kissed in the hotel. And if he lost her, if he was without her for the rest of his life, he would not survive. It would be as if a hole were driven right through his heart.

He needed her desperately. He was connected with her.

Megamind curled up it a fetal position with the Staff strewn at his side, and silently cried.

* * *

><p>*CRIES HYSTERICALLY!* Why did I do this to him? *takes a forget-me stick to my own head* There's going to be some tension between these two for a little while, but all will turn up in the end... MAYBE! Now I have to rack my amazing brain for how the next chapters going to go. But it's hard when the insanely addicting Monster High song is blasting in my ears as I post... AND I'm drawing an Irken OC AT THE SAME TIME! I have too much goin' on! This stupid imagination of mine... I'm just a hopeless fangirl! ;)<p>

Even though you didn't come here to hear about my OCs, I'm drawing an Invader called Screem, and his outfit looks pretty awesome...

So awesome, I think I wanna draw megamind wearing it XD

catch you on chapter 26! :D


	26. Chapter 26

Hola peoples! Happy New Year! here's chapter 26 of Bleu Leather AT LAST! This one took a while to finish, mostly because internet distracts me, especially when you find a pony creator on Deviant Art and ponify every single character in this fanfiction XP I have saved each one in my photos, and the best ones are of Eboni, Annabelle, human Megamind, and Minion XD that took me about THREE HOURS!

Anyways, READ! and tell more people to read this fanfic! I WANTS MORE READERS X[ I only have like eight reviews fro a story with a hundred thousand and something or other words.

*Checks word count on Word* 123,934 words at this current moment T-T This is fantasy! DONT PEOPLE LIKE FANTASY?

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><p>Bleu Leather<p>

Chapter 26

This was the most devastating torture Megamind had ever experienced.

Silence.

For three days straight, they hadn't talked to each other.

But three days of silence also meant three days of absolutely no progress in undermining Narcissa's plan of world conquest. And even though all the other Rebels were practically exploding with a desperate need to catch up in their current progress, they said nothing. The tension between Megamind and Roxanne was too large.

Megan had an argument she hadn't used all this time for some reason. She was fairly certain that there was a Reversal Berry somewhere in the way to Aidan's prison. It would turn Megamind back into his old self, and everything would be fine then.

But it was only a strong guess. What if she was wrong? What would Megamind and Roxanne do then?

The one who was most concerned about the dilemma between the two of them was, of course, Annabelle. The hopeless romantic cloudsprite wished there was somewthing she could do, but there wasn't anything to do except try her best to avoid Eckere when she glitched.

This was stupid! They weren't getting anywhere with their retalitaion, and who knew when Narcissa would put her plan into action? They had to do something soon!

And that was when Annabelle's mind was made up.

Or rather, all the other Rebel's.

The first one to confront Megamind was his own sister. Kaitoia had been feeling Megamind's pain from these few days, and she couldn't stand it anymore. She couldn't stand for her brother to feel this way, and plus, she hated to constantly feel gloomy and moody herself. She couldn't block out the feeling, because that required an enchantment. She wasn't a mage anymore, Megamind was.

But, Kaitoia was worried for another reason as well. Now that the Staff had connected with him, it could "feel" the feelings he had, and if they were negative feelings, they imacted on the performance of the Staff. Since Megamind had been gloomy for almost the entire three days, the Staff had weakened considerably. Kaitoia knew Megamind's powers would be needed soon, so she had to either lighten him up, or teach him the magic that would control the Staff's reaction to it's owner's emotions. Both would be best, though.

The first to confront _Roxanne _ was Eboni.

Bad idea. Roxanne had had a teeny tiny grudge on her particularly because Eboni tended to be insensitive. Even though the vampire had been lectured numerous times about this, she didn't know quite how to stop speaking her mind.

In fact, she couldn't. Unless…

She never thought about…_that_ thing much. It made her feel a feeling she rarely felt: guilt.

But Eboni tried to be as polite as she could muster without chipping away at her reputation. Roxanne agreed almost halfheartedly to try continuing the plan to retrieve Aidan. She wanted to snap out of this grief, but it was very, very diffucult. Megamind had latched onto her, and now he technically didn't exist anymore. Underneath all the human essence that had been infused in him, he was still there, but there was no husky, flirty voice, skinny frame, super advanced intelligence, big brain, or one speck of blue. It was as if some random person had slapped on a mask that had his face and masqueraded as Megamind.

It had taken one more person to convince Megamind. Eckere had pretty muched foiled him with her unconscious cuteness she now had when she glitched. Sure, she was cabable of being crazy and destructive, but she had a particular liking for Megamind since he had brought her back to life about a week earlier. And her feelings became more projected, and even sweet when she glitched.

She consoled him and spent time with him until her little robot mind was made up that they needed to get the last Rebel so they could stop Narcissa at long last.

Megamind found it hard to argue with her reason and her "Bambi eyes".

So it was official. They were going to retrieve Aidan…

Just as soon as Megamind learned a little magic.

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><p>"Welcome to your first lesson in magic!" Kaitoia announced with pep to her brother. Roxanne and the others watched the siblings from Annabelle's loft so Megamind had space to practice with the Staff.<p>

Megamind tried a smile. He couldn't be thinking constantly about the problem with him and Roxanne, as Kaitoia had warned him the feeling would impact on the quality of the Staff. Plus, she had also given him some tips and pointers beforehand such as, concentration was key, never cast spells when you have no control, and if you don't think you can cast anything, then you really can't.

Megamind had summed everything up in two words: have conficence.

"Now, since I'm only a former mage, I can only teach you the basic elements", Kaitoia reminded Megamind. Then she grinned.

"Ha! Get it? Elements! We'll start with the easiest, which is Earth magic."

Megan whistled. "Kaitoia! Need me to get some dirt for him?"

"Sure!"

Megamind quirked his eyebrow. Before Annabelle could protest, Megan had produced brown, fertile soil from her hands, and it rained down over the banister of the loft to settle in a small heap on the carpet.

Megamind chuckled a little at the irked look on Annabelle's face. After Kaitoia had patted the soil in a more shapely pile, she signaled Megamind to come over closer and kneel down around it.

"What does the dirt look like?" Kaitoia asked him.

"Like… dirt", Megamind stated plainly, giving her a perplexed look.

Her bottom lip stuck out, and she snatched the Staff from Megamind's hand to promptly whomp him on the head with the glass orb.

"Ow!"

"No. You don't get it at all", she muttered over the snickering happening up in the loft. She handed the Staff back to Megamind. "What does it look like? Describe it. Touch it. _Absorb _it."

Megamind looked even more confused. He took off a glove and stroked the soft soil, burying his whole hand in the slightly moist earth. Kaitoia watched closely as he fingered it until his hand became simply filthy.

"What does it feel like?"

Megamind thought hard. He'd need to have a good answer, because he had a feeling this was important.

"It's moist… and soft. It would work well for growing food", he observed. He was beginning to like this practicion for the magic he was about to learn. It was like science, which he adored.

"Observing what you plan to work magic on is key", Kaiotia informed him. "But you don't have to do that if you're planning some sort of attack that's supposed to hit numerous targets in some sort of battle. Only for enchantments."

"Interesting", Megamind said. "What do I do to the dirt?"

"It all depends on what appeals most to you", Kaiotia shrugged. "You can never tell a mage what to do with his or her powers… every spell you cast depends on you."

Megamind said nothing. He turned his head to gaze further at the dirt, wondering what to do with it, exactly. Of course, he would probably have to grow something in it, but he didn't know what.

"Sometimes… when mages are just getting their first training, the staff they use to channel magic decides for them what grows when you practice the Earth element", Kaioita started. "Although it's a rare thing, the plant that grows when using Earth magic for the first time sometimes becomes… connected with the mage in a weird way. When you conjure up a shield that deflects dark magic, the plant might appear and might give off a strong scent of the plant. It basically becomes… sort of like a little logo."

Megamind raised his eyebrows in interest. That was cool. But it was rare, so Megamind wasn't expecting it.

Kaitoia motioned for Megamind to stand up in front of the dirt, and he followed. His sister positioned the hand holding the Staff in front of him at the right angle, reminding him of it so he would remember.

"Just cast it with the same state of mind you had when you conjured up the forcefield", Kaitoia reminded.

"Will my senses be temporarily disabled like when I did do that?" Megamind asked out of curiosity.

"Funny you should ask, but no", Kaiotia confirmed. "It only happens to a brand-new mage once. The Staff has to extract all contact you have with the world from you to analyze just how much power you can muster when you do magic, or else it lives with complete ignorance with its master forever. Plus, it's a way it connects to you, knows you… you felt it, it's practically alive. Anyway, cast the spell!"

Megamind turned his gaze again to the pile of dirt. Almost at once the Staff quaked in his hands. He was glad he had put his glove back on, because he could also feel the neck get very warm.

He concentrated, even though his mind was completely blank to decide what to grow in the dirt. Did it matter? This was only training, but he had a nagging feeling that he should choose carefully for some reason. Even though it was rare, Megamind figured that just in case, he shouldn't grow any garlic flowers.

He exhaled and closed his eyes, trying to ignore the fact that Kaitoia and everyone else up in the loft were practically boring little wormholes into his skull. The Staff, held in front of him at arm's length, started to glow and pulsate.

He opened his eyes to angle it at the dirt, and a beam of green light shot out from the orb into the soil. It was very bright, and he could feel his sister take cover from the glow behind him.

But if he just barely looked through his lashes, squinting hard, he could see a vague form of a plant start to emerge slowly from the soil. He couldn't make it out completely, but it was a flower for sure.

After a couple more seconds, there was no more light. Kaitoia jumped out from behind him even before he could open his eyes, and reached down to cup the perfect little scarlet rose that had sprung up from the dirt.

A rose? Megamind was expecting something more… well… in his taste. If it _haaaad_ to be a flower couldn't it at least have been a bluebelle or a chocolate lily or something?

Something far in the back of his mind suddenly had an idea to give it to Roxanne… but he tossed the idea into a mental fireplace. He was fast losing hope of ever being alien again, and fast losing trust for Roxanne, yet still loved her.

But he didn't love her _as_ much now… because his small brain was incapable of the amount of love he could hold for her in his oversized head. He really wanted to love her more. It felt weird now… and it scared him.

He batted away the angsty thought and knelt down to look at that rose. It was absolutely perfect; no blackened edges or shredded up skin. Kaitoia was positively swooning over it.

"I… have never seen a rose this perfect. I am impressed, Syx!" she said. "My first plant I grew by magic was a snapdragon… and it was only ever so slightly wilted. It's a rare thing for a mage to get a perfect plant on their first try."

Megamind couldn't help but swell with pride a little. He could even accomplish rare things as a human!

"Am I ready to move on, then?" He piped up eagerly.

"Certainly!" Kaitoia exclaimed with raw enthusiasm in those eyes like two shining garnets. Next comes Water training…

"Annabelle, is your furniture waterproof?" Kaitoia called up to the princess.

Eboni watched, smirking as she witnessed Megamind soak some of Annabelle's things. The cloudsprite had previously rescued all her instruments so they wouldn't be ruined, and now she reluctantly watched as Megamind nearly flooded everything. Kaitoia had promised to clean it all up when they got to Air training, but Annabelle still found it niggling that everything was getting wet.

Just as Megamind got to shaping a clump of water into a serpent, Eboni felt something vibrate soundlessly in her utility belt. Her hazel eyes widened in surprise.

She tried not to bite her lip with a fang. Should she? Now? The rare feeling washed over her again.

Guilt.

This time she really did sink her fang into her own lip with a wince as the bead of blood appeared. She lapped it up shamefully, making sure everyone else was more interested in watching Megamind's first attempts at magic than realizing that… Eboni's race had… feelings.

She scoffed to herself in her mind, surprised she would stoop as low to think she had them. She would take that call this time…

It would all be over soon.

"Hey, Meg, I gotta take this call from Antony…" she quickly fibbed to the fairy beside her. Before Megan had a chance to even acknowledge what Eboni had just said, the vampire had shot into the air and glided over into Annabelle's bathroom, briefly stopping to dodge a globule of misshapen water Megamind had just lost control of.

"No, no, try again…" Eboni heard Kaitoia say before the vampire disappeared safely behind the wooden door of the bathroom, letting out a sigh through pursed lips.

She flicked at the little bit of blood still there with her tongue as she pulled out her vibrating communicator from her utility belt and scrutinized it with a grimace. Eckere had issued it to her a while ago… and she was just using it for so many wrong things now…

No. No more guilt. She had been with… _them _first.

Eboni snapped open the lid of the compact-resembling communicator, and the face appeared.

"B'fore you say anything, I haven't changed my mind", the vampire snarled irritably.

She glanced down at Eboni with an impatient expression.

"It's either the book or the STAKE", She said to her.

"I know, I know, I already have it!" Eboni growled. The tween vampire fumbled around in a satchel attached to her belt for the precious bit of material bound in blue leather and gold.

She held it out to Her as proof.

No more guilt, no more guilt, no more guilt…

Her face brightened in one of the most insane, diabolical grins Eboni had seen in a long time. The vampire bowed her bobbed head in shame, then swatted those stupid emotions away.

"Simply excellent, Eboni", She purred silkily.

"Now… if you just follow through with me the rest of the way…? Unless you want to face something even worse than the stake?"

Eboni sighed heavily.

"Th' dorm."

Megamind had just about finished up Air training a while after Eboni had emerged from the bathroom, not mentioning her call or any details of it. She had just airily fibbed to Megan about Antony summing up the Retaliation's progress, and that had seemed good enough for her.

No more guilt. No more guilt…

Eboni briefly wondered when Megamind's practice would be cut short… she knew it was bound to happen by ways of…

More shame. Stupid human emotions stuck in her head!

She just watched with glazed eyes as Megamind began his last element of training: Fire.

He deflected another fireball aimed at him. No pun intended but… he looked kind of… hot doing it.

Roxanne hated to be apart from Megamind. Why, only yesterday, she had to practically eat a pillow to keep herself from lunging at him and enveloping him in a lung-crushing embrace for eternity. The only thing that kept her from doing it was the fact that he was almost completely different than he used to be, and not just in his looks. Megamind's superior intellect had been erased and wiped away, and his smaller brain didn't allow him much space to cope with the strong emotions he conveyed as an alien. Plus, his regular peach skin was not the same as his creamlike blue skin he used to have, and he had developed calluses on his palms already. Megamind didn't like those calluses, in fact, and yesterday the only interaction Roxanne had had with him was teaching him how to pop a pimple that had popped up on his forehead. Human skin was so susceptible to so many blemishes! Megamind's glorious alien blue skin had never heard of such a thing.

Now Megamind had produced flickers of wild orange fire on the purple orb of the Staff, and twisting it in the air in a certain pattern Kaiotia had taught him.

He traced it in the air, the fire leaving its trail in a shape that resembled two splitting cells. Then he slashed a small crucifix shape in the middle, and a million little fireballs appeared and launched themselves at Kaiotia.

She dodged them expertly, making it seem as easy as doing a single somersault. Well, she had been in battles with Narcissa before, so she had experience.

Roxanne could see the pride in Megamind's expressive face. That face… the only thing that had stayed the same, practically. It was like a flicker of the old Megamind—_her_ Megamind—had briefly resurfaced. She did ever so miss him.

When they went to rescue Aidan from his prison, Roxanne prayed that the berry that held the cure for Megamind would be there. She would… probably _die_ if he couldn't be cured, because right now, as she had said before, practically the only things that were the same about him were what was left of his personality, and his face.

But she didn't know about the other reason. She didn't know that both of them would inevitably perish if they could not be reunited, because apparently, Roxanne had become latched to Megamind in the same way he was latched to her forever. It worked on humans too? Fascinating, but both their lives were at stake, should Megamind stay human. Go figure.

Now Megamind was learning combinations of elements. Roxanne was interested, so she turned her body to watch.

This one looked tricky.

"I think you're ready to produce white-hot fog, now Syx!" Kaiotia said, beaming.

"You know… you are quite good for a beginner. I took a few days to master the basics, and even then I wasn't as good as you are… I see you doing great things someday."

Megamind half-smiled at the compliment. There were many outcomes for the future, good and bad, and very bad.

If there was no cure berry to turn him back into an alien, then both him and Roxanne would practically drop dead if there was no way for them to be together.

Megamind thought this outcome highly unlikely, but if he saved the world and everything returned to normal after the sequencing helter-skelter with his missing persons case, he wondered if he would ever be looked at the same way again if people saw signs that he knew magic. But it wasn't as if he could just give up, right? This was probably his paranoid mind, but he was kind of scared the Staff would disintegrate from misuse, and then develop a devious mind which would ricochet back into something horrible happening to him.

Another outcome would be… oh, he couldn't decide if this one was the worst outcome or not. If that little demon sadist part of his mind tried getting out if Megamind was caught off guard, he'd never be looked at the same way again by anyone, even if he killed the villains. He did want to harm Andromeda and Narcissa for what they did to him, but maiming was NOT what he did. He made that very firm with his sub-conscious.

But now he had to learn how to produce white-hot fog… sounded cool!

"Ok, you learned about regular fog when we did Air training, right?"

"Yes… do I have to wrap my wrists in mummy bandages again?" he asked curiously, remembering that funny, tingly sensation.

"Well, obviously, it's still fog", Kaiotia said. "It will be a complicated sequence of Fire, Air, and the slightest bit of Water. Do exactly what I say, and I guaruntee you will get it right." Megamind nodded.

He stood with his arms outstretched, one still gripping the warm, pulsating Staff. He turned his gaze to look at the orb,and then the two familiar little squiggles of glowing white bandages spun out from two of the snake's mouths that decorated the orb.

First they started to wrap around his fingertips, and this time they felt a little more warm than cool and damp. His gloves were off.

They encircled him like a mummy, stopping near his shoulders. Now was where the tricky part started.

Thinking of exactly how much Air, Fire, and Water he needed to use.

"A modest amount of Air…" Kaiotia whispered. Megamind repeated the same words in his head.

"Just a dash of Fire…"

Kaiotia paused again. "And a light sprinkling of Water…"

There. It was very hard to remember spells, because all enchantments that used combinations of Elements had at least two key ingredients that had to be repeated in the exact same order each time.

Megamind breathed in and out, and opened his eyes.

His pupils were covered in a rosy red film.

The bandages started to unwind.`

_SLAM!_

All heads turned to the door.

"I found you…" Narcissa said with a twisted smile.

"NARCISSA!" Kaiotia screamed with rage. Everyone was eyeing her and her comrades in fear except for Megamind, whom was still in a trance from the intensity of the spell he was about to practice.

And the sad thing was, he would not be awakened from the trance unless he did the spell, which would make him an easy target for Narcissa!

The honey-blonde she-devil stepped forward out of the doorway to Annabelle's room.

"Ignorant… little… twits", she tutted with each step, stopping to glare at Kaiotia, who was standing defensively in front of her brother.

"What have you done now, you monster?" the alien asked in a brave voice, not faltering at all.

Narcissa's face unexpectedly softened in more of a sappy, terrifying way.

"Why Kaitoia, dear, that's no way to speak to your mother", she crooned.

"MOTHER?" Kaioita had never been so insulted.

"You never were, are not, and never will BE of my affections! You ABUSED me! And you took away my minion!"

Narcissa looked satisfied that she had gotten this reaction out of Kaitoia.

"You'll never see her again", she taunted.

"Yes I will. I am going to find her if she doesn't escape wherever you put her and finds me first!" Kaiotia retorted.

This time Narcissa frowned with genuine impatience, but when she observed Megamind's defenseless state, she smiled evilly.

"But enough talk about your pitiful little problems. I came here to warn you Rebels."

"About what?" Kaiotia spat.

"That the final battle is already underway! I have thousands of minions bent to my will! And those thousands will soon grow to millions the longer you delay your upraise. You haven't even found the fireboy yet!"

To the surprise of no one else but Roxanne, Kaiotia didn't flinch or show any sign of fear. She could never afford to be cowardly. With all those years since childhood of encountering Narcissa's brutal evil, she had toughened up a lot.

The cocky look on Kaitoia's face grew to a twisted grin. "We have reinforcements working right now to oppose you. We are not without power! They're currently working at gathering up tree sprites, dwarves, piskies, and fairies of all sorts to help US! If you had really wanted to take over the world, you probably would've made a better choice of who to imprison and control, like actual monsters made for battle and destruction…?"

Narcissa threw her head back and cackled—a truly terrifying sound.

"Oh, my dear, don't you know every living being on this planet is capable of both a great good and a great evil? It is so even if the creature is bent towards a certain side by nature. Change happens… and that was the other thing I came to warn you about…"

Kaiotia thought for a moment, and then it clicked in her large intellectual brain.

Her ruby eyes widened, and suddenly lost all of their friendly lust and sparkle. Now they just looked huge and scary.

"Are you trying… to tell us…?"

"It's my final offer, and if you don't accept this time, you will all be doomed the moments that follow."

Kaitoia was almost at boiling point now. He angry, brooding face had to be maitained under control just a little longer.

"We're never joining your side, Narcissa. Ever. I don't care what you promise us. Nothing would reward us more than sending you back to where you first originated along with all the bothersome creatures that have come along since the beginning of time."

Narcissa laughed even harder, and this time when she stepped forward, Kaitoia suddenly whipped out a heavy nunchaku from a leather pouch strapped to her curvy waist. The villainess challenged the weapon with a slender platinum sword only a little shorter than she.

"Fine", she scoffed as Kaitoia quickly and easily deflected a blow from the sword with the nunchaku without even moving anything else but her left arm.

"You're all in for a rowdy time when it is ripe for me to unleash the minions I've accumulated already. One by one, I will eliminate you all…" she briefly paused to steal a glance at Megamind,still in the trance.

"And that delicious little Johnny Blue will be spared only so I can watch him die of depression when all the rest of you are gone! And you can't do anything about it, Katie dear, because the Staff has expired on you!"

And with that, Narcissa's comrades came bursting in the room at the same time the Rebels in the loft charged, Megamind still left in the middle of the battlefield.

Narcissa's slaves consisted of various creatures wielding various weapons. There were pure black fauns with gnarled horns jutting out of their tiny bald foreheads, the only other flash of color being their beady little eyes the color of amber. Megan was flicking each one away as if she hadn't a care in the world. Then there was a mangy little creature Roxanne was fending off (and succeeding) by smashing it to a pulp with one of Annabelle's music stands. It was a hideous cross between what looked like a scorpion and some sort of big ferret with three-inch long claws. It hissed with each blow to its head, and Roxanne had to dance away each time its poisonous tail darted forward.

Some of the other creatures were not so easy. There were some that also wielded weapons, and Annabelle was dueling to the death with a maiden as tall as she, but slender and much older-looking. She seemed to mirror every move Annabelle made exactly, no matter how sudden.

By now, Kaitoia was sweating hard, as her only weapon now was the nunchaku against Narcissa's heavy sword.

"You—will—not—lay—one—hideous—FINGER—on—MY BROTHER!" she screamed with each blow to the sword. Even though Kaitoia had had a lot of practice fighting like this, she was getting a little more worn out than she used to.

In fact… since Megamind had come along she had been feeling less and less powerful… because she wasn't a mage anymore. Now she could only throw little balls of magic by herself, and even that small amount was a blessing without a staff to channel it. To do magic by yourself required even more energy, years of practice, and more power from your aura.

And speaking of auras, it seemed Megamind's was showing itself for the first time, which was unusual in practice. It was bright, and pure emerald.

As it got brighter, even Narcissa stopped fighting with Kaitoia to shield her eyes.

And then, every single person in the room smelled roses.

Kaitoia's eyes popped open underneath her fingers, and then looked up at Megamind when the light winked out, and he only had the wispy white bandages on his arms. In one hand he had the rose he had grown earlier, and he gently pocketed it beside his De-gun in the holster.

"J—Johnny!" Kaitoia stammered.

But Megamind was scornfully glaring at Narcissa, who was temporarily shocked as well.

"Take this!"

Megamind put the bandages into action, and whipped an arm out painfully, aiming a dart of scalding hot mist at the villainess. She ducked, and then spoke to him.

"You are next in the bloodline? How much magic do you know?" her tone was almost fearful, and that was surprising.

"I've only been practicing for the past hour, but I have taught myself a little combat magic with the use of Elements!" he exclaimed, and looked at Narcissa dramatically over his bandaged forearm.

All the creatures that had been clashing against the Rebels suddenly were much more interested in Megamind. They knew and followed the demand Narcissa had given them before they had ambushed everyone in Annabelle's dorm.

To capture Megamind, and keep him _alive_ until the time was right.

The minions encircled him, closing in until it looked like he wasn't going to do anything…

But he _did._

As they were on the verge of pouncing, his strong, toned human arm shot into the air, and more wisps of hot fog spilled out from his palms. He could feel the Staff in his other arm vibrating madly, hrad at work and happy to be doing magic for him.

The fog flowed freely all around him, burning the creatures that surrounded him. A hideous, bloodcurdling shriek erupted all over the room, and Megamind winced, as he couldn't cover his ears from it.

His ears were ringing painfully. He got more and more exhausted with every second. This was his first serious spell, and now he knew the full extent of it. It used a lot of your energy.

But he had a plan trying to weave itself in his small human head. If he had his overgrown cranium back, he could've put it in action immediately.

Annabelle's dorm was no longer safe, and he was pretty sure the the guest house would be a pretty obvious hiding place. So where would they hide now until they could rise against Narcissa?

Maybe they'd just have to hide out somewhere in her jungle of a garden. Yes. That would be tha best choice, and the Rebels were foolhardy enough to venture back into the mansion if Aidan's prison resided in the underground otherworld. Megamind was not worried about that.

He was worried that Narcissa would capture him, and kill off all the others.

The anger that the thoughts sent him actually fueled his magic, and the fog billowed out of his hands in thick curtains. The room was starting to get incredibly muggy and unbelievably scorching, but he didn't much care. He just wanted all of Narcissa's comrades to die.

With one final yell of pain, and one final burst of fresh roses, Megamind's hand dropped. The Staff felt as if it were on fire, and he was sweating like no tomorrow.

Once the fog cleared, he could see that every creature that had been around him was either dead or stunned and sprawled out on the carpet. There were hideous-looking burns marred on all of them, making a sickening sizzling sound against the flesh and hides.

Megamind flipped his damp, inky hair out of his shining emerald orbs and glared at a shocked Narcissa evilly. Once, in a mirror, he had glared at himself in the same way, and now that he was human, that face had become scarier. Black hair framing the squinted eyes made the look seem ominous, and the contrast of his pale peach skin to his perfect white teeth when his pink lips cirled up into the smile was stark.

"I can do magic, Narcissa. Watch your step…"

Narcissa shook her head, making her strangely intact hair bounce.

"Watch my step? For a prisoner? Don't make me laugh, Johnny!"

The Rebels came out from hiding and all pounced on the villainess at once.

She was too fast for them. With a circle of her arm, there was a white flash that sent everyone backwards and forcefully to the walls, knocking all of Annabelle's things everywhere.

Narcissa looked back at Megamind with her onyx eyes. "What can a beginner possibly do to me?"

Megamind rolled his eyes.

"Kaitoia noticed that I was more advanced in practice that she was when she first became a mage", he stated calmly, stalking up to was careful not to provoke her just yet. He was going to put his plan into action.

"So?" The villainess hissed, grabbing Megamind by the collar.

He still tried to maintain a calm face while his spell was imminent on his fingertips, which were hidden behind his back. The other hand gripped the warming Staff firmly.

"So that means I'm going to practice until I can wrap you in blankets of air with too much pressure to withstand so I can choke you to death. Or set fire to the entire mansion with one flick of my finger… or…"

He still needed to distract her for a little longer. His spell wasn't ready. He tried to make the pause sound dramatic until he could come up with one last thing.

"…Or torture you with all the elements until you surrender. After all you said so yourself a few minutes ago: all beings are capable of both a great—"

He had done it. She was livid.

What he wasn't expecting was a hard, fast peck on his lips from the villainess, where he could taste her rubbery purple lipstick.

He was dropped from her grip, and the shock of the kiss made his hand relax on the Staff, which fell away, laving it to the mercy of Narcissa as she had planned.

No! Megamind was too fast. He recovered and pounced for the Staff before the spell on his fingertips wore off.

"Eat ice, Narcissa!"

And his hand shot out to the villain, immediately covering her from head to toe in a sheet of cold, cold, thick ice.

The recipie for that? A few gallons of cold Water, a gust of subzero temperature Air.

Once she was frozen, Megamind tried his best to squeeze his remaining amounts of energy from himself and run. He motioned for the Rebels to follow him out the door. He didn't know whether the spell would last with Narcissa, but it sure was enough to stall her for at least several minutes.

Annabelle quickly dove to catch her falling guitar; the only thing she needed in this room and fled along with the others. Megamind ran, falling a little behind because his feet felt strapped to a hundred cinder blocks.

Once the had woven through a perplexing maze of corridors beyond Annabelle's dorm, Megan stopped and turned around to everyone. Her face was stern.

"Ok, if we're gonna lose Narcissa before she melts the ice, we should split up. I'll go with Eckere, Eboni, and Annabelle. Johnny, go with Kaitoia and Roxanne. At the next corridor, each group will break off into opposite hallways", she ordered in a military voice.

"We'll meet in the forest that Narcissa had planted in her garden. There's a structure there that will mark the spot. It's a towering marble statue of a mermaid with rubies embedded in the tail and the crown. Can't miss it."

Everyone nodded stiffly.

"Go! Run!"

And with that, the two groups took off like bullets, Kaitoia leading her group. Every single muscle in Megamind's body felt mutilated, but he ran through it all, forehead soaking. His throat felt like sandpaper, and he was horribly dizzy with a pounding skull, and the Staff in hand.

The sickening taste of Narcissa still lingered on his tongue.

But he didn't care. He only had two thoughts right now.

He was going to defeat Narcissa at all costs, and if it had to be done, he would find a way to kill her. Andromeda too.

His other thought was to keep Roxanne safe no matter what. He still loved her as much as a human could, even though that was such a measly amount compared to how deeply he loved her as an alien.

His true self, underneath all the rearranged DNA and humanity loved her more than any human could, and he was determined to love her just that much.

That was why he also had to keep the rose he had plucked.

For her.

* * *

><p>I'm not sure if I like the ending, but I like the mysterious air I created with Eboni :D Now NOWHERE is safe for our dear Rebels!<p>

I need to draw concept art for this fanfic and post it on DA so I can advertise this story. But I'm too lazy right now, and I can't even think right because of my music in my ears like it CONSTANTLY is now that I filled a playlist with 23 songs from an iTunes gift card recieved for Christmas.

GHOSTBUSTERS! WEEWO WEEWO WEEWO WEEWOOWOWOWO!

Stupid music engulfing my mind -.- see you when chapter 27 comes around! I need to begin it RIGHT NOW in fact...


	27. Chapter 27

HELLO HELLO PEOPLE! :D Here is chapter 27 for your enjoyment! OMG I have to push my eyeballs back into my head as I post, because I have been on the computer ALL. FREAKING. DAY. And my ears are to the point of bleeding because my playlist has been on a million endless tracks and jammed into my ear canals X[ I have played my music enough times for me to sing all 24 songs on 25 seconds. I'm gonna sleep like a baby tonight XD

Oh and one other thing: I STILL ONLY HAVE TEN REVIEWS FOR THIS WHOLE NOVEL! I WANTS MORE PLEEEEEEASE! I'm review starved! Tell your friends to read my stories pretty please, or I'll take a Dehydration Gun to my own BRILLIANTLY SUPERIOR HEAD! * hand wavers to the De-Gun sitting in front of me* REVIEW FOR THE SAKE OF ME NOT BEING... A... CUBE!

* * *

><p>Bleu Leather<p>

Chapter 27

By twilight, Megamind, Kaitoia and Roxanne had finally surfaced in Narcissa's garden. When they had first arrived, they were shocked, indeed.

Megamind had remembered Narcissa's gardens to be lush and blooming with colorful foliage; a garden the likes of no other in the world.

Now it was wilted and gray and shriveled. It went perfectly with how the weather was, too: Megamind couldn't see a single star in the sky because they were all blocked out by dark gray clouds. The temparature was cold, and it was really windy and drizzly. He could hear thunder and see lightning in the distance.

Now, this was not normal weather for Paris at all. Not at this time of year. It looked…

Was Narcissa controlling the weather to foreshadow her evil?

That was a little cliché, but Megamind didn't take note to that. He was going to defeat her no matter what, and he was going to turn alien again no matter what.

Death was beneath him right now.

All three of the older Rebels were dirty, sweaty, and worn out to the point of fainting, but Kaitoia had informed Megamind and Roxanne that they were almost at the landmark. Since Megan knew her way around these parts a little better than all of them, Megamind guessed she and the girls were already there and waiting for them.

Since there was almost nowhere left for all of them to hide, they'd probably have to camp out in safe places in the garden, moving from place to place so they'd hopefully stay unnoticed by wayward spies for Narcissa. Did she have spies? It seemed likely.

Megamind realized it could be anyone or any_thing_, and his eyes instantly widened when he caught sight of a skittish little winged woman hovering directly in front of him. He was behind Kaitoia and Roxanne, and they didn't notice.

The fairy zipped around in front of him like a botfly each time he tried to move, the two women walking on and not noticing.

This hideous creature was supposed to be a fairy? It's skin was slick and greasy black, and it wore a tunic made of dead leaves. Her gray hair was matted and had little bits of dirt in it. Her wings were larger than the length of her body, transparent, and had black veins jutting through them.

"Kaitoia? Roxanne? This… thing isn't letting me through", he called out to the two.

When Roxanne turned around, she looked slightly on edge.

Kaitoia, however, looked horrified.

"AUGH! Kill it Syx, kill it now!" she screeched as she ran over to him and caught the attention of the fairy. Megamind slipped past while she swatted at it with her nunchaku, but the creature dodged every blow.

"Ok… RUN!"

Roxanne and Megamind looked dumbfounded, but took off sprinting through the thick forest together. Megamind's muscles were still in screaming pain, but he ran thorugh all of it once again.

The fairy was dangerous? Megamind was only mildly surprised. He had let his guard down! Around here, that was suicide!

He kept running along with Roxanne until she slowed, and eventually stopped. Then she turned around slowly.

Kaitoia wasn't coming.

She and Megamind shared a disturbed look when all that they heard now was silence and wind whistling in the skeletons that were once willow trees.

And then a voice Megamind didn't recognize: Kaitoia's scream.

"Oh my god!" he cried as he took off running again, his inky hair whipping about. He wove his way around and over all the roots jutting out from the ground until he stopped short to face his sister running up to him…

And clutching a hideous throbbing wound that had appeared on her blue flesh near her wrist.

Megamind gasped and shuddered. It was a sickly purple-green that oozed some sort of liquid he didn't want to know what it was, and he could actually _see_ it slowly spreading up her arm and rendering it spaghetti-like and useless. He wanted to throw up at the sight of it, and Roxanne looked pretty green too.

"What was that thing? Did it bite you?" Megamind asked worriedly.

"Worse", Kaitoia whimpered as the rash engulfed her elbow. "It poisoned me. That little fairy was a Degraded pixie. When A magical being gets Degraded, they turn into either a great evildoer or a great hero, depending on what they were first. I recognized that it used to be a pixie that gave life to dying animals… and now she takes it away…"

Kaitoia's voice considerably weakened as she spoke, and she dropped down to her knees, making Megamind's face twist is a grimace of panic.

He would not lose Roxanne _or_ Kaitoia for that matter. Ever. Kaitoia was his long-lost sister, and the only other remaining alien of their kind.

Megamind racked his brain for a solution. He had the Staff. He could do magic.

"Johnny… it's spreading. Up to her neck", Roxanne murmured, grabbing Megamind's arm to get his attention. He didn't want to look, but he darn well knew she was right.

He thought. If he was an alien, he'd already have an idea by now.

…Hey! That was it! Think like an alien!

Megamind rubbed his filthy fingers on his paled temples and squinted those emerald orbs shut.

Then he remembered.

During training for magic back at Annabelle's dorm, he recalled Kaitoia saying to him that Fire could both create and destroy.

And what was most commonly overlooked about it was that it could _heal_.

That was it. It was only a shimmer of hope, but Megamind had to try. Plus, Fire cast with a Staff was anything but ordinary.

Yes. It was painful for his shrunken brain to have thought that much, but he had a plan.

He scampered over to Kaitoia's side and sat down on his haunches while he planted the Staff in front of him with his left hand, and held his other hand out, palm facing up.

He produced a small ball of crackling fire in his hand after a few seconds of concentration. Then he closed his fingers slowly around it until in hovered just above them.

With a flick of his wrist, it popped directly into his mouth.

He was not worried about this. The little fireball just felt like a pill. Kaitoia had told him that his own magic didn't harm him if it was not a combat spell, a spell done with low confidence, or a forced spell.

He quickly leaned over his sister, pursed his lips, and blew the Fire at her poisoned arm, all the way over her sleeve, and to her neck.

Megamind sat back and looked. His eyes had been closed the entire time he blew, so he didn't know if he had done something to help her, or had simply killed her.

Roxanne wasn't screaming. Either he had done good or she was shocked into silence.

Megamind's eye popped open. It was followed by the other one.

His face instantly brightened when he saw that Kaitoia's rash was perfectly singed off, leaving her creamy blue skin underneath.

And then everything was drained from his face when he realized just how tired he was, physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

Magic drained your energy.

Soon, he had basically passed out on the damp earth, eyes only a sliver open. The whole world was spinning. He felt very nauseous all of a sudden. His throat was completely wrung out of moisture, and finally all of his muscles had just turned into warm, wet spaghetti.

He felt two warm hands on his sweaty face, turning in away from the ground, and he guessed it was Kaitoia, but if he opened his eyes just enough, his heart skipped an exited beat to see that Roxanne had briefly carressed his face. She looked worried, even sympathetic.

Kaitoia gently took the Staff from his hands so she could hold it, and then at the same time slipped a hand under the bends of his knees, and at the back of his neck, and picked him up with ease.

As Megamind passed into unconsciousness, what his sister and Roxanne were discussing became more and more fuzzy in his ears. But it was something about him needing immediate rest, and "Poor Megamind." His eyes barely open, he looked at Roxanne once more. She was still eyeing him with a sympathetic look.

"No more magic", he heard a voice whisper gently in his ear.

"Kaitoia… I had to do it…" Megamind's speech was slurred almost beyond comprehension.

"I know, and I'm glad you did", she consoled. "But if you even try to do any more magic while you're still low on energy, it's likely you'll die. Got that?"

Megamind nodded weakly as his eyes rolled back into his head and he was promptly unconscious.

* * *

><p>"Is he waking up?"<p>

"Shh! He hasn't recharged enough!"

"Too late, Sherlock."

Megamind's bright green eyes flitted open to find himself in just as a state as he had been hours ago. His musles would not listen when he told them to move, and his throat was adamant about being all dry and sandpapery. Now he just wanted to go back to sleep.

He hacked a harsh, dry cough. "How long have I been asleep?" he asked no one in particular. Was that his own voice? It was so hoarse! If he talked again now, he'd be coughing up blood…

"Three hours…" Kaitoia answered. Megamind's eyes adjusted a little more, and he could see that the Rebels were gathered around a small fire in the very heart of Narcissa's barren garden.

He felt a small weight on his shoulders. When he saw a long, metallic black hand drop down in front of him, he realized it was Eckere. Amazing how her paint had stayed intact after all they had just gone through.

The cyborg was sitting behind him, caressing his skin sadly. If Megamind had the strength to crane his neck, he would've seen the robot with her LED lights a saturated blue, and shiny with tears, her antennae drooping.

"I missed you, Megamind", she murmured to him softly. He felt the metal hands slip around him in a hug. His left wrist regained enough strength to touch Eckere's sleek, black arm.

"She's been so worried about you", Annabelle said, shaking her head. The pure white, cloudy hair was streaked with dirt and leaves, and touched with the merest hint of watery gray. "Just my luck Eckere loosed her scared feelings on me by chasing me half a mile to this forest wielding handfuls and handfuls of mutated amphibians from the acid lakes… How did her paint not get ruined when she touched the water, by the way?"

Megamind tried to shrug, but only succeeded in shifting his shoulders. He had to ask one more question.

"When are we… going to look for the last Rebel?" he strained. The question was followed by a fit of dry coughing and a pained moan.

"Tomorrow", Megan answered firmly. "Then comes the planning part, which may be a bit tricky. And… it just got trickier since Eckere lost her power."

Megamind wanted to gasp and widen his eyes, but a only a strangled sound managed to escape his disabled throat. He was quite shocked, indeed. They couldn't see into the future to figure out the outcome of the world now.

"Well… now we have no easy ways out." Eboni offered. "S'more of a challenge."

Megamind tried a weak nod.

"Where is the"—there was more coughing—"chopstick now? I gave it to Roxanne…"

Kaitoia piped up. "It could only have been left in Annabelle's dorm when we escaped Narcissa. I'm sorry, Syx."

Megamind felt his heart drop all the way down into the pit of his stomach, adding to his already miserable feeling. That chopstick was special… Megamind had given it to Roxanne out of so much love, and it was such a rare, rare thing…

He swallowed thickly, and then brought up another question.

"Where's Aidan's prison?" he rasped.

"It's in a larger lake even deeper in this garden… and we'll have to improvise if it just so happens to have turned into acid. Under no circumstances are we to give up", Megan ordered.

Megan had been saying that a lot, because she herself, the leader, was losing some confidence. It was not her job to be fearful, and that was the only thing she worried about.

One of her fears was fear itself.

Maybe it was the intimidation of what lay ahead. Maybe it was Narcissa's intrusion that had roused her. Whatever it was, Megan didn't like it and how it was niggling her.

"Megan!" Annabelle piped up. "It might not have turned to acid… remember we kept seeing little spots of pure garden on the way here? This garden is awfully big… and the _mermaids…_"

Annabelle whispered the last word. Megan coughed into her fist.

Mermaids. No, Narcissa would've never turned the mermaid's lake into acid. They were going to help her when the war eventually broke out between good and bad. They were the _evil_ merfolk.

One of the things that frightened her.

In her mind, Megan screamed at herself. She was afriad of everything! What was wrong with her? For a few moments there was a somewhat awkward silence before Annabelle strung some notes out from her guitar to lull everyone into a more peaceful state. It was the only instrument she had salvaged from her room, and really, the only thing she needed. Sure, she loved all her other instruments to pieces, and was greived to know that she might never get them back, but the guitar was the only thing she really needed.

Her music worked like magic on everyone. The Rebels needed rest after this long day if they were to have enough energy to find Aidan, who resided in the hardest prison. Even the crackling fire was starting to get dimmer.

As Annablle kept strumming, Eckere reluctantly left Megamind's side to power down in a better position. She hovered by her feet and landed in an upright position among some dismal foliage, hidden from sight. Megan leaned against a tree and her eyelids slid shut, and Eboni hung by a branch. Kaitoia curled up on the ground, and Roxanne gathered up a buch of dead leaves to lay down on.

Soon, Megamind fell under the spell too, and was fast asleep once again.

* * *

><p>It was midnight when he was awoken by rustling of leaves. Megamind's head snapped up, he made sure the Staff was safely in his hands, and looked around curiously.<p>

It was strange. All his horribly sick symptoms had disappeared now. Maybe he had recharged fully.

Megamind's ears strained to listen. His slightly heightened senses he had as an alien had disappeared, and that was getting to be more niggling than sad.

So he wouldn't waste even an atom of magic energy, Megamind used his smaller form of magic: his light that emanated from his hands. If he only generated small little wisps on his fingertips to light up dark places, it didn't uses energy. It did take away some if he did something bigger, like using Megan for a kite, but only a little.

The flickers of icy blue llight appeared on each finger, looking exactly like little candles. They lit the garden with just enough light that he could make out everyone sleeping individually. Kaitoia had shifted into an odd position in the night, and Eboni was snoring a little.

But as Megamind scanned their little campground further, he gasped in shock a little.

"Oh! It's only you…" he sighed after jumping a little at Roxanne being awake. He held his hand between both of their faces when she cralwed a little closer to him.

The blue light cast weird-looking shadows across each of their faces. Megamind's expression was shy, and a little bit heartbroken, but Roxanne's was somewhat neautral.

"Johnny… I just couldn't leave this unspoken, but you know when Kaitoia mentioned that I left the chopstick you gave me at Annabelle's dorm?"

Megamind nodded, but his heart had no idea whether to rise or fall. It was in a nauseating state of flipflopping madly in his chest right now, not ever making up its mind until Roxanne got to the point.

"Well… you looked like you felt really bad about that. So I have to tell you, I grabbed it at the abosolute last minute, because I just realized it meant a lot to me."

Roxanne reached inside her boot and slipped out the trinket, fully intact.

Megamind smiled sadly at her.

"I will always keep this, no matter who you are, Megamind", she assured sweetly. She leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek.

"Thank you, dear", he sighed. She had acknowledged the real him! Even if it was buried under all his humanity!

He still watched Roxanne as she made her way back to where she had been sleeping before. Starngely enough, she even kept watching him as if she didn't want to stop talking.

And. She thought to herself, she didn't. She just wanted her Megamind back.

Amongst the flickers of icy light, his brilliant green eyes seemed to shift. They regained a familiar shine Roxanne had memorized.

Megamind silently made his way to Roxanne and laid down next to her from behind.

"Roxanne… you know I will always love you even if I don't turn back into myself. But I have a feeling I will. Don't worry about anything", he whispered tenderly into her ear.

But he didn't recognize the voice, because it wasn't his human voice.

The real Megamind had shown through, just for that seldom moment.

Before he went away, he thought, he kissed her ear softly.

His heart melted like butter in the sun when Roxanne reached her hand out to his arm, started to stroke it, and then pulled him in closer. Was she inviting him to sleep right here?

She positioned his muscular arm across her, and he meekly responded, even though he was confused. But how could Roxanne have resisted when she knew almost how much he had been hurting these past days? She had felt the same, and she couldn't bear it any longer. Even though this technically wasn't Megamind, the real him had shown through just enough tonight to make her want to have contact with him.

Plus, Roxanne had believed him when he said he would turn back into himself. One thing that was indubitable about him was his determination. Even though he had briefly given up before Titan met his demise, he had come back because of Roxanne. And look at the good it had brought him! A feat like that surely would've been impossible for a coward. An even greater example of his endurance for victory were the twenty long years of constant combat against Metro Man.

He was not going to be human for much longer.

_Staring intently into the glass, his thin red lips curled up into a devilish smile. He was in control now. He had dominated his body, and had almost taken over his mind. The moments that he had escaped into the outer world to reach out to Roxanne were going to require that his guard was kept up continuously. _

_Megamind pounded desperately on the other side of the mirror. He had been pounding constantly. For that brief moment—just that brief moment of heaven!—he had been able to show himself through this hideous human avatar. But there hadn't been enough time to warn her, no, he had been too overcome with his feelings for her. At least he had told her he loved her, because he really did! More than the human! _

_Johnny was the name that the Rebels had given the avatar now. What else could they have called him? Megamind would've been quite irrelevant. _

_Johnny's lips turned from smiling scarily to frowning. Megamind's pounding would never break the glass barrier, but it was annoying. Didn't he know that the avatar was in control? Who cared how determined the sorry little, scrawny little alien was! Johnny would overcome him, either while he was still possessed, or when he found the misleading berry. But he couldn't let his guard down for even a second. Megamind had escaped to the surface, even if only briefly! Johnny was under strict orders of Narcissa to be doing this. _

_Johnny was a rare type of magical being that very, very few had been able to come across, and even rarer to tame. He was an Addiku spirit. They had no form unless they took control of a host of their choice, and then they chose a look for themselves, transforming the host into that form. _

_He had that part down with Megamind. _

_So, to become fully formed, they invaded a small part of the host's mind and filled it with negative thoughts to start off with fresh other negative, scared, and paranoid thoughts the host thought, the Addiku fed off of until they gained enough power to take over the host completelyand finally morph into a living being. _

_Maybe that should've been rephrased—a living _monster_. _

_Since Addiku materialized out of negative thoughts and feelings, they usually ended up like twisted versions of their hosts. Then they went on rampages as they pleased. It was a horrid,horrid thing. _

_Johnny turned back to Megamind behind the glass and smirked. The alien was so desperate, and that only made johnny gain more 't Megamind know- _

_For the first time since he had inhabited Megamind's body, he was petrified. But he quickly shook the feeling away, since the hosts grew with dominance when Addiku were weakened inside them. _

"_Megamind, the avatar is asleep right now. Are you dreaming?" Johnny asked the alien. _

_Megamind looked up, thought for a moment, and then smiled with realization. _

"_Why yes… yes I am! Now I know all about you! All I have to do now is tell my brain that precisely, and I will know exactly what's going on!" he cried triumphantly. That big blue head wasn't there for nothing. It made putting two and two together much easier. _

_Johnny growled and pounded on the glass with enough force to even break it, but it only made a crack the fraction the size of a hair. Megamind was clever! And his dreams reached deep, so deeply! This one was a warning! What would happen when the avatar woke up? _

"…_Fool!" he spat, holding the f for a few seconds before saying the rest of the word. "Who cares if you know I'm inside you! I'll just haunt you a little more, and that'll give me even more power! You can't get rid of an Addiku parasite." _

_Megamind thought for a moment before smirking. "I can. I'm…_determined_." _

"_Be quiet!" Johnny roared. "You are so...very… irritating!" _

_Megamind shrugged. It was true! He was determined to regain control of his body. He would prevail. He had two main reasons that drove him. _

_One: Roxanne and their very lives depended on him. Two: Being possesed by a spiritual parasite was not Megamind's idea of a nice way to go. There were probably many other reasons, too, having to do with Kaitoia being the last remaining snippet of his family surviving their planet being sucked into a black hole. _

_And the honor of having saved the world, even if the rest of society couldn't know. Heroes were supposed to be determined; that was the basic motivation all his other ones were built on like the foundation underneath a building. _

_Johhny was pinching the bridge of his nose in disconcert. Megamind was so difficult to possess! And Narcissa had known this! Since he had entered Megamind by ways of Andromeda's _ _most valuable potion, even changing his body had been difficult. His resistance in his mind had been so forceful, and Johnny wasn't used to it. Large-headed aliens were not the norm for Addikus. _

_But Johnny was determined ust like Megamind to overcome him. He wanted out of his spirit form, and wanted to have full contact with the world. _

_Then he could help destroy it. That, he thought, should be neat. _

_He won dered what would be the best way to materialize. If the avatar took the right bait, he would split apart from Megamind, leaving him to revert back to his full form, but then he would become a whole other person separate from his bodyand be a total opposite. He was madee out of negative thoughts and feelings, for Pete's sake. Johnnny would turn into some sort of sadist killing everything that got in his way of whatever he wanted. That would be a good way to make off with Megamind; just to make him wink out of existence, basically destroyed by his negativity. _

_On the other hand, crushing him under the heel of his own boot would be a triumphant success as well. Plus, it would leave no residue of Megamind on Earth ever again, and Roxanne would be left for dead. _

_Johnny's lips curled into the ugly smile once again. He couldn't decide which outcome would be best! But one of them had to happen… _

_Johnny slowly turned to Megamind residing straight-faced and stock still behind the wasn't even blinking. _

_But just as Johnny opened his mouth to gloat, Megamind threw his head back and let out a bloodcurdling wail as loud as he could. The avatar had to wake up! He had to wake up now! _

"_WAKE… UP!" _

"OH MY GOD!"

The eyes couldn't have flown open fast enough. They shone with a new terror in the green abyss at the dream.

Had he looked _inside_ himself? Connected with the part of him that was still him? It was desperate to get out, he realized!

What was that about an Addiku spirit?

Megamind glanced at the horizon. Tiny threads of sunlight barely danced over the top of Narcissa's towering mansion.

Then he returned to himself. The dream! It was… it was…

_Heh heh heh._

There was a small voice in his head that echoed. It sounded like the voice he had when he spoke, but it sounded… evil!

Megamind's eyes widened. Now, suddenly the dream was slipping out of grasp! He tried to grab at the remaining strands of it, but was failing.

The images flew through his mind.

_Roxanne would be left for dead… _

_Megamind crushed under the heel of his own boot… _

_Built entirely of negative energy… _

Before Megamind could make his brain block out the thoughts, they came flooding in without warning or consent. Some of them had to do with the situations he was in. Some of them were completely random; even irrational.

Even through that all, he was terrified. Andromeda hadn't simply turned him human with just any potion.

Oh no. Her crazy llittle mind was far more devious than that.

She had introduced some kind of spiritual _parasite_ into his system! Like any real parasites, though, it was slowly eating away at him. This one… was going to wipe him right off the face of the Earth!

Megamind's back slammed back to the earth, his head spinning and the lilac sky dipping and wavering before him. The dream had showed him so much! Now he knew exactly what was going on!

His tongue darted out to lick the cold sweat off of his top lip. He urged himself to stop panting.

Then his mouth opened and he screeched to the self inside him:

"MEGAMIND! IF YOU CAN HEAR ME, COME OUT! COME OUT NOW!"

But he couldn't.

* * *

><p>Sorry for the cliffhanger, folks! *snickers* I warned you this would be a freaky chapter!<p>

...Oh, wait I didn't. *slaps forhead that's starting to bruise* Now you CAN'T wair for the next chapter, can you? CAN YOU?

I should get off of the computer for the sake of my sanity now... surfing the net and picking up about forty two new megamind pictures for my 334 megamind pictures folder has driven me mad... and the lack of reviews has done the same, if not more...

GO I SAY! GET AWAY FROM ME UNTIL I AM SANE AGAIN AND READY TO POST CHAPTER 28 THAT IS BEING WRITTEN AS I- *slumps down on the keyboard and has narcolepsy induced by insanity*...


	28. Chapter 28

OMG I am so sorry for the delay for this chapter! X[ Stupid rejected my file, so I had to make a new one! Plus, Internet Explorer is being goofy, and I can't fix it. Plus I don't have access to iTunes or new Word documents for some reason, There's always this stupid little window that pops up that says I don't have permission to access the file, and would I like to remove it?

Um. NO! So I have to pack up what little I have in my flash drive (You know, 400-and something-or-other photos of my dear Megamind, and the fics that I've started and plan on posting soon) and move out of my user, so I can delete it, and then re-create it again. Maybe it's just some computer weirdness I don't know about... don't know. It hasn't happened to my sister's user :/

Anyways, READ READ READ!

* * *

><p>Bleu Leather<p>

Chapter 28 "MEGAMIND! IF YOU CAN HEAR ME, COME OUT! COME OUT NOW!"

Roxanne awoke with a yelp and snapped bolt upright to find a discombobulated Megamind writhing in terror beside her. His eyes were wide, pupils dilated, and he was practically hyperventilating.

Those facts alone made her fully awake and equally frightened.

"Whoa! What? What… Johnny, what's wrong?" Roxanne stammered in a frenzy of panic. Despite her now alert state, her thoughts took a while to catch up with her body, and even more so now that anxiety was blinding her. What was going on?

Megamind finally started to still, and then rolled over to look at her with an expression that was a cross between terror and anger.

His shaky hand grabbed her arm and held it firmly. "Don't… ever…. call me that… _again._" Roxanne simply looked at him with concern, but nodded and then asked, "What is going on? Why were you screaming?"

Megamind tried to talk, be it was exceedingly hard with everything spinning around in his mind that was slowly getting eaten away.

"Calm. Down! Breathe slowly! I can't understand what's wrong if you keep hyperventilating!"

Megamind sucked his thin red lips into his mouth and bit down hard on them to distract from his thoughts. He immediately stopped when he tasted the coppery tang of his own blood.

With a deep breath in and out, he tried to recollect what exactly had gone on between himself and the Addiku in his dream. It wasn't normal for even a human to forget this powerful of a dream so soon after waking up, especially if it traumatized them. The parasite must have been making him forget.

He resisted as hard as he could.

"Roxanne… I'm being possessed… I had a dream about it…"

The reporter's eyes widened.

"What did you see?" she asked, trying not to panic.

"Well… the real me and my human form were standing on either side of a strip of thick glass, and the real me was fighting to get out… and… my human form is actually a parasite, Roxanne. Andromeda didn't just turn me human, she infected me with this!" Megamind gestured to himself. "Apparently, my appearance I have right now is not a human form! It's the parasite's avatar!"

Roxanne tried to drink in what Megamind was saying, but it didn't exactly make sense. He himself didn't think it made much sense either.

"Can you explain a little more clearly?"

"Yes. I'm just panicky is all. I'll tell you everything", Megamind said, still trying to keep his breath under control.

Roxanne propped her chin up on her hand, and Megamind took in a breath.

"Ok. I'm starting to forget the dream, but it does mean something. The glass I was behind… I think it represents the real me trying to get out of this form. And as I told you, I think the form I'm in is the avatar for the parasite that's in me."

"What is this parasite you keep bringing up?" Roxanne questioned at last.

"I think Andromeda introduced it into me by ways of that potion. It's not a parasite like a bug, it's something that just gets inside me… spiritually, most likely. That just makes a lot of sense, doesn't it?" he muttered sarcastically.

"But anyway", Megamind continued, "I think it's intentions were to overtake the part of me that's still Megamind. It mentioned to me that… it was something called an Addiku spirit that gets inside people and eats away at them somehow so that they materialize fully and become united with the world since in their spirit form they can't… feel. Maybe they're like ghosts?" he guessed.

Roxanne didn't know if he was making a very educated guess on this, or if the specifics were actually in this bizzare dream he had. She went along with his explanation, and tried to make a few guesses of her own. After all, that was what she did best.

"So, from what I've been able to interpret… you basically have a split personality?"

Megamind's face screwed up in thought, still desperately grabbing at the remaining memories of the dream.

"Yes", he murmured with a petrified look.

"Can you remember any more of the dream?"

"That's what I'm trying to do. The Addiku is stealing away the memory of the dream, because I would've been able to remember if it hadn't done that. If it wasn't doing that, the intesity of the dream would've stayed with me because I think it was actually a realization."

Roxanne looked pensive again. "Well, if you're saying this… Addiku thing is trying to take over the real you…"

"Wait! One more thing", Megamind added, tapping his fingers of the side of his face. He dredged them acrosshis goatee before he continued.

"I didn't exactly clarify how I think the Addiku may be taking control of the real me. Because I know from the moments after I took the potion, it had already taken me over enough to make this avatar-which is how I look like now—of the self it plans to materialize in. Does that make sense?"

Roxanne nodded. Megamind actually expected nothing less; she was the smartest human he knew. If he himself had just simply been turned human, he could've bragged, though.

But no, he was possesed and slowly having his real self eaten away.

"So I think what you're saying is, this parasite just gets inside people, and then immediately makes an avatar of who or what they plan to look like when they have taken over the real person inside completely", Roxanne summed up.

"Exactly, but there's more", Megamind added. "I need to say this before it makes me forget: it feeds of the negative emotions I think so it can grow stronger. Fear is the worst thing I can feel right now. The me that's still thinking is the real me, by the way… but… now I don't even know who exactly I am anymore, being half-Addiku avatar and half Megamind."

Roxanne screwed her lips to one side. Yes, this was very confusing to think that Megamind had a split personality now.

"How much time until it completely takes you over?"

Megamind gulped, but tried to look brave and not think anything negative, no matter how much the Addiku pestered. "I don't think there's very much time. I just hope I find the right berry when we get Aidan so I'll turn back into myself again, because the Addiku hasn't completely taken me over. Megamind is talking right now, not anyone else."

At the last sentence, Megamind's face became tender, and he reached his hand over to the back of Roxanne's head to softly caress her hair. He had a longing look in his eyes. He had never gone this long without Roxanne's love.

Well, of course Roxanne loved him, but she couldn't love a parasite! She wanted Megamind fully returned to her. This was not him, at least not completely in terms of his attitude. He was trying his best to surpress the Addiku's insane urges, but he was basically fighting with himself when he tried.

Roxanne's face sobered slightly. She smiled sadly, and tried to stare into the green inhuman eyes to find Megamind somewhere in there. He was in there, and she knew it. He had to come out, come out and defy the Addiku that was holding some of him down, and trying to tear at it until he became no more. She would never let that happen to her Megamind. She would never lose him to some kind of invasive demon.

As she examined his intoxicating green eyes even further, staring deep into the inky blackness of the pupils, she could've sworn she was seeing some tiny person beating at the reflection inside. It was very vague, but the figure had a large, smooth, blue head, and looked absolutely desperate to escape. She simply hitched up her eyebrows and kept looking until she realized that she and Megamind were very… slowly… inching their faces together.

As much as both of them wanted to kiss, no matter how incredibly hard it was to surpress the urge to lunge at one another, Roxanne gently pushed at Megamind's chest to awaken him from his unkowing trance. He blinked and looked at her for a second before the awkward silence came and hung in the air thckly, like humidity in the rainforest.

They stayed silent, only listening to ravens cawing distantly until the first other Rebel woke up.

Kaitoia.

With a yawn and a stretch, her garnet eyes popped open, blinked once, and then turned to the two other adults.

"Morning", she smirked. It was her knowing smirk, the one that screamed the day was going to be mind-blowing. They had one more big thing to accomplish before rising up against Narcissa, and also they had to fix up a lot of other little problems.

Some of which only a few Rebels knew about.

But Megamind came right out and stated his current problem.

"Kaitoia! Andromeda introduced an Addiku spirit into me, not a simple human potion. I had a dream about it last night", he summarized quite bluntly.

Kaitoia took a moment to take in the suddenness of his comment, but her eyes widened when she realized it wasn't a joke. But she knew the full extent of these parasites, having been exposed to the good, bad, and ugly all her life around Narcissa. She clapped a hand over her mouth briefly before crawling over to her brother and shaking him by the shoulders.

"Are you quite sure? A simple vision won't tell you just how dangerous an Addiku can be! Believe me, I know!"

Megamind maintained a calm face. "I knew you would know, you having been here the whole 32 years of your life, and me being here for a week, give or take. But I already disscussed the dream with Roxanne, and we agreed that I do know that Addikus are very, very bad."

So far, Megamind was succeeding at trying not to be scared or think of any negativity. It was his main goal to best that horrid creature and keep it from taking over his body, and he kept that in mind.

"That's probably one of the greatest understatements I've heard you say, Syx!" Kaitoia scolded, her eyes wide and fearful. "Addikus attitudes rub off on you if they stay inside you for too long, and since they materialize out of negativity and end up your complete opposite, that is going to be simply _horrid_ for you." Her British accent rolled off of the two rs in 'horrid', making the word sound even more diabolical.

"Why don't you even look scared? This is serious!"

This time, Megamind actually laughed. A genuine laugh at how his sister could be so forgetful when she had so big of a head.

"Syx, you're starting to scare _me_ with your attitude now. What's wrong with you?"

Megamind's laugh softened to a smirk. "Kaitoia, if you know so much about these Addiku, how are you forgetting the most important factor I'm trying desperately to keep in mind? They feed off of fear. If I'm not negative, the Addiku will be forestalled", he reminded.

Kaitoia briefly screwed her plump purple lips to the side in embarrassment at forgetting, but gathered herself back together to reply. "But you do know that that alone will not eliminate them, right?"

"Yes." Megamind assured, removing his sister's arms from his shoulders.

"You sound tense, Kaitoia", Roxanne observed after a moment.

The alien turned to look at Megamind's would-be girlfriend. She slumped her body in defeat.

"That's because I am. I hate these nervous ticks I get sometimes; they're just so unnerving. I guess I'm just anticipating the last thing we need to do, which is rescue Aidan, and Aidan is hidden in the most dangerous of prisons in Narcissa's pond that could actually be big enough to be qualified as a sea. Plus, we need to be careful to not get lost wandering up in the caverns and air-pockets that are dotted throughout, because it's easier than you think to get lost like that." Kaitoia hoped it didn't sound like she was rambling, but Megamind and Roxanne merely nodded.

"I… I don't get nervous", the reporter admitted to no one in particular. "I almost never have. Even the few times back home when I somehow got in the midst of a criminal's plot and Megamind had to come and get me, I wasn't afraid."

Megamind wanted to reach out and hug her, but he waffled. Roxanne's braveness was one of the things he most admired about her. She wasn't a whiny, panicky, screamy woman, and he could definitely observe that all through his evil days when she refused to scream at any torture devices Megamind pointed at her. It made him flush with pride inwardly how she could survive his most diabolical threats wihtout so much as flinching. The way he used to show his pride was thorugh frustration that she wasn't being a good damsel in distress, but inside he was always very impressed, which made him feel attracted to her.

Megamind went over briefly how he felt now that Narcissa was rapidly advancing in her plan for world conquest. He did feel a little scared, but the knowledge that a parasite would take over the last remaining bits of his true self if he thought negatively encouraged him to stay strong. The one thing that still lurked in the deepest corners of his worries were words Narcissa had said once when he had gotten kidnapped, and then just yesterday when he and the Rebels had been ambushed in the middle of practicing magic.

Something quite despicable along the lines of killing everyone he knew and loved, then watching him waste away to nothing since he had no one left to turn to; to love; to trust. Yes, that was the one niggling thought that bothered him no matter what, but he still tried to appear hopeful. It was harder than he thought.

No one had anything else to say for a long moment until Kaitoia's ruby eyes snapped up, and she cupped a had around her lavender-pink ear. Megamind looked at her curiously, and he suddenly wished that he had his alien ears that could detect sound much easier than normal human ones.

Normal…_avatar_ ones.

Roxanne and Megamind both starined to hear the sound Kaitoia had heard, but they sensed nothing.

"What?" Megamind hissed.

"SHH!" Kaitoia hissed back. "Be quiet… now."

"What is it?" Roxanne demanded in a half-whisper.

The alien listened for a little longer before biting her tongue. She looked back at the two with a frightened expression.

"I think… Narcissa's coming to get us. To capture us", she murmured, a pinkie stuck in her mouth.

"Wake up the others. We're going."

Megamind and Roxanne did as they were told, shaking the sleeping tween Rebels awake and telling them quickly that Narcissa was approaching and they needed to escape. Despite almost everyone's grogginess, they got up immediately and made their way to Aidan's underwater prison.

They were going to find him.

* * *

><p>They had to run. Oh god, they needed to run. Narcissa wasn't just setting out to find them. She had sent packs of werewolves to carry out the task for her!<p>

This was bad. Very bad. One: The werewolves were apt to mutilate each one of the Rebels to shreds, and two, the new fear of them that reverberated around Megamind about the wolves was speeding up the triumph of that pesky little Addiku inside him.

But no, he would not let the fear take new heights and settle completely interwoven into his mind. That was what would make the Addiku grow even faster, and then the last little parts of him would be nipped away to shreds until the real Megamind was no more.

As Eboni ran, though, she had to fight the urge to turn right around on one foot, get on all fours, and run with those wolves. Her kind… her vampire race that she had lied about did that sort of thing. But if she had ran with the wolves,Then most of the Rebels would've… _known._ About her. About what she had done…

So she tried to think of something scary to run away from, because to her the werewolves were going to be harmless. But if they did get to the other Rebels, they'd be a pile of bones in a second. The problem was, nothing scared her, really.

Then she thought about what She had said back at Annabelle's dorm.

Stake!

Eboni imagined running away from vampire slayers wielding wooden stakes, and found that it helped. A lot.

"Turn this way!" Megan exclaimed from where she lead at the front of the pack of Rebels. Everyone almost immediately swerved to the left to avoid a surprise from a werewolve. They did it just in time, too; Megamind heard a revenous growl as the monster pounced at where they once had been, obviously dissapointed at their agility.

"I think we're almost at the pond", Megan shouted over the ominous howling that was echoing loudly in the thick woods. "We'll lose the wolves there—OH god!"

The mangy, drooling wolf was going at them full-on.

"Kaitoia! Nunchaku!" the fairy commended at Megamind's sister.

"Megamind! Magic, if you can!"

Megamind's fear dissolved for a second. He really did love doing magic, especially to see his enemies crippled by it so easily if he did it the right way. He knew little, but he found it quite easy to teach himself a few things.

The Rebels clustered, back to back as another wolf slowly approached from behind. Megamind guarded one side, and Kaitoia guarded the other.

At the exact same time the werewolves launched themselves at the group, Kaitoia went wild. Her little but powerful weapon became a blur as she swung it skillfully at the moster's snout, and tried to take hits at its eyes to make it go blind. Soon she didn't find it scary, but fun. She had had so much practice with weapons her whole life.

Megamind, meanwhile, was enjoying himself tremendously, grinning from ear to ear as he tried all kinds of elementals on the wolf. There was one thing in particular he had theorized about trying, and it involved Fire… he figured it wouldn't waste a heaping amount of his power….

Plus, he was getting tired of batting the wolf on the skull with the orb of his Staff. He focused some cocky confidence into the spell as the stick awakened from its dormant state and throbbed in his hand. He felt some warmth flutter around on his fingers through his gloves.

With a snap of his fingers after one more rap on the wolve's head, he heard the crisp, satisfying sound of sparks spiraling from the fingers he had snapped. They were white little beams of light that first wandered aorund freely, then focused into one thick beam, and before the wolf could pounce again, it descended onto the creature's body.

Almost immediately, the werewolve was ablaze with white tongues of fire licking and crackling.

In the moment that followed, the thing was no more than a pile of black soot.

"Spot on, Syx", Kaitoia congratulated with a quick smile. "Let's ditch this place…!"

And then the Rebels took off again through the thicket, Megan leading the rest of the way to where Aidan's pond was supposedly located. Now that the Staff was on a roll with beating out raw power, Megamind defended the group by casting more white-hot flames at straggling wolves that lept at them. He smiled all the way, defying the Addiku in his head and having such fun doing this.

"Oh lord, there it is!" Megan exclaimed breathlessly. She so wished that her wings hadn't been mutilated the couple years before, because even with those two years without them, running was still weird for her. Would she cough up blood? Maybe she would just throw up.

Megan led the Rebels through a thick undergrowth full of brown leaves for what seemed like ages until they came upon the largest clearing there ever was in the world.

Megamind didn't have enough eyes to take in everything! The green ones he had already were rupturing anyway. He blinked hard, and stared dumbstruck.

Narcissa practically had a national forest for a backyard, and even that was probably an understatement. His mouth and Roxanne's hung open unconsciously as they ogled.

There was a great towering waterfall, for some reason making no sound as pure, clear, bubbling water spilled by the tons into the lake, which Megamind guessed was probably even bigger than Lake Michigan back home. The water sprayed up from the base of the waterfall in white mist, and it might've made rainbows by the dozen if the sun were out.

Even with gloomy gray clouds, the sight was still unbelieveable. Other than that waterfall, Megamind glimpsed what he guessed were caverns, and tiny islands with sand where statues dotted the surface of the rippling water like sprinkles on ice cream.

On the smaller, more detailed and intricate side, there were also lily pads that formed what almost looked like extesions of land on the water tiled green and with the occasional white or lilac lily prettily resting on the plant. Countless beds of lush green moss festooned around on the flat rocks that Megamind guessed the mermaids in the pond used to sun themselves. But since there was no sun, and the cold was merciless, they had all retreated.

Megamind rubbed his eyes and tried to look away from the spectacular sight. He and the Rebels had priorites right now.

Annabelle stepped forth, stopping for a moment only to look over her shoulders and half-expecting the werewolf horde to burst through and attack.

"Ok, the dock should be a little further away", she said lowly just in case. "Follow me quietly!"

The Rebels did as they were told, Megamind taking another partly risky opportunity to marvel at this one piece of intact land left on Narcissa's property. How big was her property exactly? How did it even cope with the government laws? She had to have some sort of spell put on it to blind people.

Megamind felt and heard his footsteps become hollow. He looked down and saw that he was standing on a dock that led out to the pond, and unlike the natural splendor, it was partially rotted and covered in seaweed.

"Now. There's only one step we need to take before we can start looking for Aidan", Megan announced. "I'm pretty sure that there's a plant around somewhere that'll turn us into things that can breathe underwater , and we'll need that."

"I know where it is", Eboni piped up before she could stop herself. The Rebels turned to give her an expectant look, silently telling her to prove it, because the plant was quite hard to find. It could grow on land, or in the water. It could grow almost anywhere, whether there was a body of water neaby or not. The grew from spore, which were so light, they floated on the merest of breezes and landed anywhere.

And they were so hard to distinguish, because they looked like normal old poison ivy plants.

"Would you mind actually getting it for us?" Megan said impatiently. "The werewolves will be after us any time now…!"

Eboni complied with a strange mixed feeling of reluctance, shame, and pride. She wasn't supposed to be doing this, but they couldn't know until it was too late.

Eboni knew Narcissa's underwater plants were hiding in some undergrowth. They had never been trampled over. She could even tell them apart from normal poison ivy, which ignorant humans never touched.

Eboni quickly flew back to into the dead foliage behind her, where the familiarly shaped stone was located that marked the spot. She dug quickly, scraping her pale hands with little pink lines on the splintery twigs.

She reached inside, expertly avoiding the real poison ivy until her fingers brushed against something more velvety than the poisinous plant. Her fingers wiggled around to pick more for everyone except Eckere, and then quickly returned to the group just as she smelled the stench of a werewolve's unclean fur.

Eboni floated back up out of the brush and landed on the dock, everyone taking one of the poison ivy-looking leaves. Megamind and Roxanne had them shoved into their mouths instead, them being an easy target, still hanging agape at the unbelieveable sight.

"Both of you! Wake up. This place is supposed to do things to you."

Megamind coughed up some of the leaf.

"Don't do that! Eat, quickly!"

Roxanne and Megamind and everyone did as they were told, even thought the plant tasted like rubber.

"What now?" Roxanne wondered out loud.

"Er…" Kaitoia suddenly looked embarrassed. "The transofrmation will not bode well with—ahem—clothes, so everyone just… hide behind a rock or something and then get in the water as soon as you transfrom. Come on!"

Almost immediately the Rebels except for Eckere spilt up in different directions, although Megamind and Roxanne were left on the better portion of baffled.

"Eckere, why didn't you…?"

"I'm just going to keep lookout. Robots can't get wet, you know!" the cyborg answered Megamind as her eyes turned blue and she saluted dramatically.

"Go get Aidan!"

This time Megamind and Roxanne rushed off in opposite directions, took shelter inside small coves, stripped, and waited.

Megamind drew his pale human legs up to himself to preserve heat. How long was this going to take? How would it feel? What if a werewolve sniffed him out?

Megamind growled to himself. The real him might not have worried this much. He was not going to let the Addiku manipulate him, but it was tiring to keep his guard up constantly. And then whenever there were very strong negative feelings in the moment, he'd probably go insane trying to have fake hope or happiness. What if someone… died? When they faced Narcissa one last time? Megamind quickly batted the thought away so the Addiku couldn't pounce on it like a hungry cougar. If the thought had grown, he probably would've been in tears thinking about the possibilities of Roxanne gatting maimed by a henchman, or Kaitoia being bested by a larger beast she was not capable of fighting.

What if… _he _perished?

So many useless what ifs were being placed in his mind! Stupid Addiku! Maybe if Megamind didn't get rid of that thing after Aidan was retrieved, it would just wash out of his ears along with the water. Hey, it could happen!

Ok, so maybe not. There had better be a reversal berry down there, or… or…

Yeah. He'd… die. Megamind growled lowly in frustration, and hit the side of his skull. It hurt a little, but maybe it was enough to jostle the parasite in his brain.

"When will you just get out?" he whispered to himself.

He propped his pointed chin back up on his knees.

And that was when he felt the weirdest feeling in his feet for the second time in this ordeal.

The possesed alien's emerald eyes widened in realization. Looking down at his toes, he saw that they were glowing a little.

Glowing?

And then he heard the Staff beside him rattling on something, and saw that it, too, was glowing and vibrating.

Ok, what was going on?

Well, what was he going to turn into that could breathe underwater? He was suddenly kind of excited, which made him even more triumphant that he was defying the Addiku even more.

Despite the biting cold around him, Megamind lowered his legs to see what would happen to them. Would he have a tail? Gills? Fins? The possibilities were limitless. He could look like a seahorse for all he cared.

He chuckled a little. Maybe the mermaids would mistake him for a kelpie, which were half man-half seahorse. Although, the sources he had used to know about kelpies always said something different. Most even said that kelpies were horses much like sirens, which dragged innocent people into the water to drown them. Megamind just stuck with the half man-half seahorse theory.

Oh, but no time for that anyhow! What was he going to turn into?

A few more seconds, and the weird tingly feeling that had been in his toes first had spread in a weird pattern completely up his lower limbs, in a line up his back all the way up to the top of his forehead, and just the merest bit on his toned torso. His nerves suddenly went numb as if he'd been slapped.

And then he felt it. His legs were being fused together.

Ok, at first it was kind of exciting, but he was a bit scared now. When he tried to separate his legs at the knee, they wouldn't go. The skin was melting together…

And being replaced with slimy green scales.

"Oh god!"

Megamind didn't want to watch. It had gotten too disgusting to watch his limbs being glued together like this. He held his chin high and scrunched his eyes shut, breathing shallow breaths through his nose and trying his best to ignore the sticky sounds the fusion made; it was simply sickening.

A few more moments, and Megamind had lost all the feeling in the legs he once had.

But as he just began to angle his head down, there was an electrical jolt that jetted up his spine, turning it into little more than jelly.

"AG! Holy… _god…_OW!"

Megamind slumped over to the side, hitting his head hard on the rocks and crying out even more. He touched the part of his skull he had hit. Blood on his fingers.

Megamind regained normal breath, but still heaved. Now he could see his new tail in full view, long and shapely, and completely green and shiny with a sheen of slime. His fins and the very bottom were ridged and frilled a bit, and a mild mint green speckled with forest green patches. The tail went on uninterrupted until the scales worked their way to vanishing into his skin right near his upper abs, except for the v it made that dipped dangerously down to his hips in the middle.

Looking at himself further, brushing his fingers up his side, he found ridges in his skin that felt like they were flaring and snapping shut.

Gills. He had gills.

Then his hands wandered up into his hairline where he found the stangest thing of all.

His fingers guessed that there was a long, finned ridge that was webbed inbetween fleshy lobes of hard cartilage running all the way from the top of his head, down his spine, and finished at where his tailbone would've been if he had legs.

He was a merman. But if he wasn't and alien before the Addiku, then this was alien to him!

Now he was faced with another problem. How was he going to get in the water? He was sitting in a small cove just outside the shore.

He'd have to… flop all the way there.

Megamind grumbled for not coming up with any alternative ideas beforehand. Taking his precious Staff in his firm grip, he sort of swung his cumbersome tail behind himself and ended up on his stomach.

Way to go! He thought to himself. Now how would he do this?

He slapped his tail down on the sand, raising a plume of silt in its wake. Would he have to worm or slither all the way to the water?

Probably.

As he tried moving, he thought to himself that this felt weirder than anything ever felt, because he couldn't walk. He had an urge to just stand up, trot over to the water, and dive right in, but he had no legs. They had been disgustingly fused together into this slimy tail that rightfully belonged with an underwater animal, and now that he had gills as well, he had to get into the water no matter what.

Megamind tried digging his fingers into the sand, but he should've known it would be of no avail.

But he had an increasing urgency to touch water, and he guessed it was from the mermaid instinct he probably had, because now his gills were begging for water. He could feel them on his sides, creepily flaring open and closed, gasping for air. His tail was already getting dry from the lack of moisture, and he guessed it was bad the way his scales felt scratchy already.

Mermaids had to be classified as amphibians.

Megamind strained even more to drag himself into the water, but the stupid tail still got in the way. He dropped his chest to the ground, growling in frustration. He could already see blurs of wayward Rebels who had already transformed and were diving into the water with ease; well thought-out plans in their minds before they had went ahead and settled inside a cove, only to come out flopping across the sand to get into the water.

After even more time without water, and his gills begging for it, Megamind came up with a plan.

He bit his lip and grinned, even through the pain his gills brought him. Megamind swung his green tail around so it flopped behind him, catching his torso before in fell on the sand. Then he bent his tail where his knees would be if he had them, and brought the lower half under him so he sat on nonexistent knees.

Then using the strength in the bottom half of his tail, he rocked forth and jumped into the water.

The feel of water on his face was exhilirating, and even more as his body consumed it; drank in the wetness—and his very skin seemed to absorb it like a sponge. Although the water was like ice, Megamind was not frigid or shivering.

He opened his eyes to find that his vision was anything but blurry underwater. In fact, it was clearer than it had been on dry land. Vivid colors of the coral beds were jumping out at him, and he took a deep breath in only to find that it wasn't through his nose as he intended it to be, but through the gills in his sides. Then when he breathed out of his mouth, a curtain of bubbles spiraled upward towards the surface. Of course. Merpeople had lungs and gills for air and water.

Megamind marveled at his new self a little more before putting his tail to real work and pumping it up and down to move forward. The others were probably waiting for him, and he didn't want to waste any time.

* * *

><p>HA! I have tricked you with a little shortie chapter to mezmerize you into Bleu Leather craving ZOMBIES! I must say, this chapter I liked very much, especially the dialogue in the beginning disscussing the Addiku. Poor Megs, he's completely starved of Roxanne's love :( when do you think they'll kiss again? Make out again? You tell me. I have planned a little PLOT TWIST in the next chappy! I expect it to be much longer, so don't get impatient for it (try.)<p>

To Shiriter: I LIED! Sorry! No Skritch or Tigurr in here NOW, but for sure some Skritch in the next one. If not, sink your teeth into my virtual neck.

OH NOES! I let one of my infamous spoilers leak out into public! X( For all you snoops out there laughing, let's just say Skritch and Tigurr are brand new hotties appearing in the story very soon! I SHALL SAY NO MORE!

* zipsmylips,thenlocksthemclosed,thenburiesthekey,,.* ^^


	29. Chapter 29

Hey-oh! I'm really proud of this chapter! It was a bit difficult to write, but I like how it turned out.

Oh, and just a little warning for Minion fans. he will be making a comeback in here... but please don't beat me up for what he's about to go through! :(

* * *

><p>Bleu Leather<p>

Chapter 29

Rippled green Minion-esque fins at work, Megamind finally found them.

And gasped through his gills.

Possibilities of what everyone was going to look like had been going through his head, but they were all visions of mermaids. And not all were mermaids. They were far from it.

The first Rebel Megamind noticed to be something other than a tailed human was Eboni. She had caught his eye first, because there were tigerfish fins jutting from her everywhere. Long frilled fins ran up and down her spine like the green ones on Megamind, but hers were more spindly and looked exactly like a tigerfish's colors. Her tail was short, but thick and very frilly as well. Even more fins jutted from her back like underwater wings, and overall, she caught the most attention.

But then Megamind's eyes moved on to see Annabelle, who had one large bubble over her head, and still had her clothes. Her feet were bare, and they had turned into something like diver's flippers to help her swim. Megan's skin had turned into a complete emerald green, and scales were all over her body, gills on her face and running over her scar. Instead of one tail fused together, both her legs just had mermaid fins where her feet should've been. She looked like a reptile in an orange wig.

Moving on, Megamind saved the best for last. Roxanne…

His jaw nearly stopped working again. Roxanne kept her face angled down at a partciular sea anenome, thinking she looked hideous, but she really wasn't, at least not in Megamind's shining green eyes. She was quite unique out of everyone, coming in a close second to Eboni's morph. He couldn't tear his eyes away from the eight soft orange tentacles that draped from her hips down like a gown, the orange skin spreading from the tentacles up to her collarbone, and then shifting slowly back to her own peach skin. He then followed up to her face, where her short brown hair was floating gracefully in the water around her eyes, bringing Megamind's utmost attention to them in particular. They looked even more radiant sparkling in the water, what little light on the surface ther was dancing in her irises from te water reflecting it.

When Megamind realized he was staring, he quickly looked elsewhere. He looked for that one more person that was supposed to be there…

"Where's Kaitoia?" he asked, finally breaking the silence and swimming a little closer to the group with one flick of his tail. That statement alone, for some reason, made the girls all around snicker. Even Roxanne stopped looking embarrassed and chuckled as well.

"What's so funny?" Megamind asked another question that still went unanswered for a moment.

"Kaitoia's just having a little… seashell trouble", Megan giggled as the laughter grew stronger, though Eboni just kept the half-amused smirk cemented on her face. Megamind now wished for his giant blue head back so he could try and figure out what the heck she meant by that… seashell trouble? What was so funny about that?

"Guys… RGH! I think I found another…!" Megamind suddenly heard his sister's voice coming from behind a rock spire in the water and swam over to investigate, but was stopped by a little blue hand sticking out and waving him away.

"Hey! Did I say I was ready? No!" Megamind drew back and then crossed his arms to wait for… whatever she was doing. Seashell trouble, seashell trouble… the girls were still snickering about it, and he still couldn't see why.

Finally Kaitoia came out, and Megamind could see her sapphire blue tail in full display, long and sparkling and almost like his own green tail, except without the… v. The sapphire scales tapered up to a vanishing point near her hips, and there were also flaring gills on her sides…

And now as Megamind's eyes moved further up, he finally got Megan's joke. A pair of makeshift sheashells were messily strung around her chest with seaweed twisted in ropes so they wouldn't… snap. The seashells were completely different patterns though, one being completely white with a few chips in it, and another being a soft peach speckled with black. Kaitoia was blushing.

And when Megamind started snickering as well, she looked about to slap him. "And you look nice as well, little brother. No time for laughing, guys! It wasn't that big of a deal! We have more important matters to map out", Kaitoia directed as her tail pumped up and down twice, and then she was back at the group along with Megamind

"Who made you in charge?" Megan piped up, annoyed. Kaitoia rolled her eyes and let Megan talk.

"Ok", she said, complying with the silence that allowed her to speak. "Now, this sea is even more vast than you might think. Narcissa was able to hide it from the government by using magic, and now instead it's labeled on the map as an abandoned national park. To get to Aidan, we'll first need to get through the caverns and air pockets, but they're made to confuse and mezmerize you, so self-control will be crucial in this part. Don't get all cocky and think you can resist Narcissa's magic… or the mermaids for that matter", Megan finished, taking a wary glance at, for some reason, Megamind.

"W-what?" he asked, inching back in the water by flicking his tail the merest bit, his hands clasped behind his back, crushing the crest that ran up his spine painfully. Megan decided not to tell him now. Most mermaids were very cruel things. They lured any humanlike male being into their grasp, and then lulled them into a zenlike state by seducing them to the extreme. Sometimes they just did it for fun, but sometimes they did it because the male owned something they wanted. And that was very dangerous, considering the fact that Megamind was wielding and old, old magical mage's staff that had unfathomable value that was much more than money. Mermaids were such suckers for anything sparkly, but the last thing they were was stupid.

Narcisa owned those exact types of merpeople. Megan bit her now dark green lip and turned her head back. "Follow me and Annabelle and you'll be fine. Then we'll have to split up once we start to go get Aidan, because one group will have to make sure the mermaids don't notice us on their territory, another has to take Megamind to get a berry to turn him back into an alien, and somone else has to get Aidan himself."

"Who's going to do what?" Roxanne questioned.

"I don't know yet. We have to go through the coves first and then I'll decide who goes where", Megan said.

Instead of letting the group linger in silence, Megan led them further into the water, and they all followed suit, Megamind trying not to look at how Roxanne's tentacles moved,and Roxanne trying at the same time to not stare at Megamind shapely tail or the v it made. Especially the v.

Megamind was hardly paying attention to what was happening as he mindlessly followed Megan, his eyes too busy drinking in every marvel in the sea Narcissa owned. It was much more lush and thriving with underwater vegetation than even the Great Reef in Australia. Although, it was only rich in plants and the occasional microorganisms. Megamind never once caught sight of a fish or a crab or anything. The most likely cause he still didn't know about was that mermaids were carnivourous, and feasted on any little morsel that drifted by. Fish didn't stand a chance.

And speaking of fish, it brough Megamind to contemplate his tail for some reason. He knew how to use it, but it felt very strange to not be able to have two legs he walked on with instinct. And he knew his skeleton had definitely been rearranged to accommodate a long, strong spine, and he wondered if he now had a swim bladder like Minion. He already looked a lot like him.

Which brought him to another lingering wayward topic. Minion was probably plagued with worry, as Megamind hadn't arrived home on the plane in due time. He and Roxanne had stayed in Paris… and were now involved with something they had never even imagined. Megamind was combatting against an extremely powerful supervillain who not only possesed a myriad of magical creatures all underground and waiting to be loosed upon the world, but had pure magic to assist her. Not a solitary superpower like Titan, but real magic.

The same magic Megamind was now capable of doing. The Staff in his hands vibrated a little at his thoughts. He clutched it tighter to himself, for some reason afraid of the mermaids said to lurk in here; afraid of one of them darting out and snatching it from his grasp to hoard in a cavern somewhere. And he also wondered whether his De-Gun would work in water, but only for a short moment. It was kind of contradictory to shoot someone in the water, at least with that setting. At least, for some strange reason, the bottom strap that had once wrapped around his lower thigh had stretched out to wrap around the length of his majestic green tail.

Megamind awoke from his thoughts to find that Megan was leading them to the grand soundless waterfall Megamind had seen earlier. His eyes were forced to widen once again at the enormity of the white foamy water that billowed out from the water that spilled above the surface. "I have to advise everyone to try and stick together after we make it up this waterfall, because the other side is mermaid territory after we're sucked through the tunnels and caverns", their twelve-year old leader instructed.

But before anyone could even try and struggle against gallons and gallons of falling water, Megamind had a sudden idea. He swam forth, gathered some confidence, and just as the first time, generated a milky white forcefield from the orb of the Staff, and looked back at everyone with his face telling them to follow.

Then he scrunched up his shoulders, and shot upwards like a bullet.

It hurt like heck.

His tail thrashed up and down and up and down again, while his gills flapped open and closed rapidly, trying to resist gravity and the force if the water on the forcefield pushing down on him. The forcefield only helped in thinning the water that slammed down full-force on his face, but that also meant his tail had to work harder. The thick, green, scaled appendage rocked back and forth, the fins at the bottom completely flared, and occasionaly pumping so fast and hard, it slapped against the rock towards the inside of the waterfall . He wondered if the others were able to follow, and he quickly stole a look behind himself to see that Roxanne was in fact right behind him, her tentacles working fine against the water roaring past them.

Her determination drove him to pump his tail even harder, and with the last burst of his strength in the numb muscles, he reached the top of the waterfall, shooting up into the air with his momentum, and then diving back into the current.

Now they were atop the awaterfall, Megamind's chest heaving.

But when he let himself reclined in the water out of exhaustion, he received a scolding from Megan.

"Megamind, get up!"

As he just started to raise his head, he felt his stomach begin to drop, along with the rest of his body, falling down the other side of the waterfall. He barely had time to scream when he hit the water, knowing that he had to dive into it so he wouldn't get injured.

But even when he hit it, he kept right on falling.

* * *

><p>He was going to be sick anytime now! Everyone was getting tossed around like a salad in the vicious current of the first cavern Megamind had found. Megan had informed him about it between churns of the water in the passage.<p>

Now the only thing Megamind was worried for was the Staff. He tried his best to curl up into a ball while keeping it close to himself so it wasn't in danger of snapping when he hit the side of the dark cave. Sure, he was going to have galaxies of bruises later, but at least his best weapon woud be safe.

As he kept getting thrown about in the tide, his eyes screwed shut, he suddenly remembered something he had pocketed when he had escaped with everyone from Annabelle's prison. He groaned, not out of pain at hitting another rock, but at the fact that it was most likely lost, along with the chopstick.

The rose Megamind had picked to give to Roxanne with the hope of someday; the rose he had grown by magic, and would most likely never die. It was gone now. Megamind tried his best to let go of the Staff with one hand to touch his gun holster, and he was afraid the gun would fall out as well. He fumbled with the buckle at the top used for securing it inside, and then gasped a breath of air through his lungs as he briefly surfaced, and was instantly pulled underwater again.

To his surprise as he touched it again, He felt soft velvety petals in his fingers. Poking them around a little more, he even found the chopstick he thought Roxanne had kept.

What was doing this? At least the keepsakes stayed intact! Whatever was keeping them in there, Megamind didn't care, but he was grateful for it. He scrunched up again as he felt a particularly large swell of water come up behihnd him, and then he was blown forward with the force, slamming him headfirst into Roxanne's stomach. Why was it always Roxanne?

He tried to choke out an apology, but with all the noise, it was deafaning. Now he was also overcome with a desire to clutch Roxanne close to him to keep her safe as well, since she wasn't doing much better than he was.

After a few blows to his shoulder, and one fatal avoidance of a headshot against the rocks, Megamind felt the water stop with a low, gurgling hiss. He tumbled in the water a few more time before surfacing, completely breathless.

They were now in a dimly lit cave, though he saw no source of light. The water wiggled in shiny patterns on the ceiling of the air pocket, making it look like a grotto.

"What was THAT?" Megamind suddenly heard Annabelle cry out, her voice distorted by that bubble over her head.

"The first obstacle", Megan said in a slightly slurred voice, obviously having been affected by the washing machine-like experience as well.

"You never told us it would give us sores tomorrow!" Kaitoia's voice protested, and Megamind turned his head around to see her rubbing the back of her head with a pained grimace, and with the other hand straightening her seashells.

"No time to gripe, Kaitoia", Megan said tersely. "Let's move out. If we stay any longer the cave will do things to us."

"…What things?" Roxanne asked curiously.

Megan looked back at her with an unsure face. "Even I don't know. And I don't WANT to know."

And with that she motioned everyone to follow her, and dove back into the water. Megamind had actually had the same question on the tip of his tongue. How could she not know? She had been around here for a while. How could Kaitoia not know? She'd been here all her life.

Megamind just kept on swimming, his gills still flaring wide open from the rush of the barbaric current. He needed to keep his guard up at all times around dangerous places, even if he didn't know what the cave could do to him.

They pressed on, and for some reason Megamind kept holding the Staff across his chest in a position that was ready to strike at any time. And his knuckles were paler than his skin. Why was he this tense? He reminded himself that the Addiku would benefit from this, and he didn't want it to grow any more than it already had. He was almost to the curative berry. It would be gone soon.

But as soon as he loosened his grip, he spied something that made him tighten up again.

Two glowing yellow eyes peeked out from a bed of rocks nearby. Then another pair came along. And another.

Megamind licked his lips, then summoned a burst of courage and shot at the eels with a stunning ray of white light. The loud crack it made caused the Rebels to whirl around and see stupefied eels floating belly-up in the water, Megamind still frozen with the position of the Staff, not sure whether he would recieve an applause or a scolding.

"Well… the eels could've been predators", Megan simply shrugged. She turned around along with everyone, unimpressed. Megamind scowled, then followed along, hoping to do something worthwhile next time.

* * *

><p>"Big deal!" she screamed. "So the infested Johnny saw the attack eels, so what? Does that mean that he's Hercules or something?" Narcissa growled at her partner in annoyance. Andromeda was just the slightest bit insane, and not very bright at times, but she was the only ally Narcissa truly confided in to wreak real harm, so she still stayed with her.<p>

But now Narcissa was truly angry because she had let Megamind take ahold of her precious Staff. Andromeda tried to cover it up by saying he had the fake one, but Narcissa was not stupid. A fake Staff would not have channeled his aura or given off the scent of roses.

And deep inside, Narcissa was a bit concerned for her delicate plan, since the channeling of an aura and his auric scent had been revealed, and that was a true sign of an incredible mage… if the mage knew how to control his powers.

Narcissa was not one to hope silly things, but her mind had protection against Andromeda's telekinesis skills. So she gave it her best thought that Megamind would not know how to control his powers.

As she pondered, she took a puff of smoke from her skinny pipe, and then let it out in tendrils of swirly purple that vanished into the air above her head. She imagined those were her thoughts vanishing into the fabric of reality, apt to come true in little to no time at all.

The villainess kept on pacing, her laced leather boots clonking eerilly. "No, my mermaids will take care of those little twits", Narcissa reassured, wiggling her fingers tipped with the sharp black nails. "I have many more creaures tha could do eve worse than kill him. Poisonous eels were the least of it!"

"I-I'm sure, mistress", Andromeda stammered, briefly looking away from the magic orb in the fake staff that showed the Rebels progressing in present time. "But listen to reason: Johnny is quite determined… more determined than any new mage we've pitted against since most likely a century and a half ago."

"Why should I listen to half of what you say?" Narcissa sniped darkly. "You lied to me! You told me that Blue didn't have the real Staff, and he did! If you han't just given it to him, he wouldn't have been this powerful!"

Andromeda had a glimmer of insight still in her violet eyes. "Ah, 'tis true I lied, but it's all part of the plan, milady", she returned.

"How is it possibly part of the plan?"

"If Johnny had not received the real Staff, then he would've perished in your labyrinths long ago. Did I not receive word from you that you wanted him to die in your own special way?"

Narcissa paused to puff more smoke into the air, considering Andromeda's words. "I suppose you're right", she hissed through gritted teeth and puffing out more of the smoke through them. Andromeda was almost never right,although she did have the occasional clever plan.

"Yes… I think he will be most pleasurable in killing, that little dagger in my back", Narcissa mused, actually ghosting a pale hand over the dirk in the leather scabbard. "Killing him with blade or mallet is terrifically boring. His death will be slow, painful, and a complete bloodbath, however, for the rest of his pity Rebel friends… and his loved ones."

Then suddenly Narcissa's face brightened. With an excited gasp, she cried to Andromeda, "Were you able to teleport the piranha here as well? Johnny must lose all hope of ever having family again, and we can't forget his fish he left in Michigan."

Andromeda turned to face her mistress with an ugly smile. "If course I have his minion. He is separate from Kaitoia's minion. In fact, I have him in a tank right in this room."

They had been in Andromeda's chamber all this time, and now Narcissa returned the same diabolical smile. "Bring him to me."

* * *

><p>Now only leisurely cradling the Staff, Megamind felt a sense of adventure well up inside him. He shut out the negativity of the Addiku, and focused on the task at hand, which was already thrilling him, and at the same time he was a bit anxious about whether the berry would cure him or not. Was there even a berry? Megamind had to trust Megan's sources. She was trying to help him, and doing the best she could.<p>

Although, he did feel a bit of remorse in not being able to participate in rescuing this so-called Aidan. He felt a bit of satisfaction, though, in having another male in the Rebels, since all this time there had been females. He wasn't being sexist, but he just felt that another boy would make him feel comfortable, and not surrounded by girls.

"Mermaid territory is coming up, guys…" Megan mused under her breath, double tails paddling behind her like flippers. Megamind's attention suddenly became riveted to what he was doing, and he followed.

Then his attention drifted away to something else.

For some reason, he couldn't quite tear his eyes away from how Roxanne's tentacles worked in the water. They were long and graceful, and not the least bit disgusting in his eyes. He once again followed their transition of taut peach orange skin up to where it ended at her collarbone, and once again had to look away when their eyes met.

Now the Rebels stopped and gathered in a circle with Megan looking ready to issue more instructions. Megamind stopped, his green tail fanning out.

"Ok, now here's where we have to split up", she began in her military voice. Megamind actually paid attention this time, not letting his humanoid attention span meadner elsewhere.

"Kaitoia will lead Megamind to the berry, and Roxanne can come along if she wants to." The three adults complied with a quick nod.

"Eboni and Annabelle have the risky job of fending off any oncoming mermaids you see. Up to the task?"

For the first time, Megamind saw Eboni's magenta eyes brighten with excitement at the prospect of having the most important job given partially to her. Her expression quickly faded into a pout when she stole a look at the cloudsprite beside her she had to do the job with. They were like absolute night and day.

"Me… I'll get Aidan myself", she finished a bit stiffly.

"Y'self?" Eboni piped up smartly. "Why's that?"

Megan scoffed and rolled her sapphire eyes. She was not going to admit it out loud at a time like this. It was just too humiliating, even though almost all the Rebels knew about how she… fancied him.

"I just feel like it, ok?" she blurted irritably. "Besides, I'm the leader and I get to make decisions. Let's split up."

Megan pointed to Megamind's group as Eboni and Annabelle swam off into the depths of the water.

"Kaitoia will lead you to the grotto. I wish you the best of luck in finding the berry."

And with that, Megan went off in another direction while Kaitoia immediately sped forward, leading them to the cave where she knew the berry was.

"Ok, you guys will have to stick closely together. Mermaids don't just stay in one territory, you know", Megamind's sister lectured. "If we do encounter one… well, I'm sure we can all fend it or them off", she added with a wink.

Megamind smirked quickly, stealing a glance beside him at Roxanne, who had chosen to go with him. His smile returned. Roxanne wanted to go with him; berry or not.

"Roxanne…" he began, "You're coming with us?"

The reporter's face softened for him. "Of course. Berry or no curative berry, I'm never leaving your gilled side."

Megamind chuckled, and then blushed a bit when Roxanne hooked her arm around his, wishing she could hold him closer and kiss him, but she didn't know exactly how much of the true him was left now. She wanted to coax at least some of it out now whether the berry existed or not. She loved Megamind, not the parasite. She didn't want him to turn into Johnny.

* * *

><p>"Andromeda, hurry it up!"<p>

"I have him right here, mistress!" the voodoo doctress shouted from down a short corridor where secret things were kept. She walked carefully back into the main room with a tank in hand, and careful not to spill water, she placed it atop her séance table.

Minion floated in the ceter of the tank, his back to both of the women. He had been teleported here just outrightly yesterday, and at first he was much more than flustered, now being kidnapped by two madwomen when Sir and his girlfriend had gone missing in Paris, but now he was angry, confused, and solemn.

"Oh little fishy…!" Andromeda singsonged irritatingly.

"What?" Minion grumbled, turning around to face the two women snickering at him.

"We haven't told you the whole thing about what exactly you're in, have we?" Narcissa teased, bringing her face to eye level with the icthyoid.

"You mean there's more?" Minion asked incredulously, the fear ebbing its way back into his voice. They had only told him the "basics" of how things worked in the magical otherwolrd he had apparently been introduced into, and incarcerated in. And it was only his second day in, and with this much on his poor little mind, he had a number of possibilities flying around.

"Oh, yes", Andromeda purred with a drippy smile. "And I won't be surprised if you literally go belly-up when you hear what we have to tell you. It's a doozy!"

Minion frowned and inched back uncertainly in his tank. They hadn't told him everything. He didn't even know just how close and unwell his Master was doing right at this minute.

"Well, little fish", Narcissa began ominously, "would you believe me if I said that I am also holding Johnny Blue and Miss Ritchie hostage along with you?" A diabolical smile was probably somewhere at the back of her head right now.

Minion took a minute to process the information, and couldn't hold back the shocked gasp that came with it.

"You're… you're lying!"

"We're not!" Andromeda mocked in his tinny voice, slamming both her hand on the sides of his tank and looking at him distorted in the water above. She took pleasure in looking at his flabbergasted little face, eyes probably about to rupture from his expression. They both watched as Minion's gills flared more quickly as he tried to absorb the facts.

"Sir will stop you both", Minion stated to the women plainly, but mostly trying to assure himself. They both burst out in fits of haughty laughter, making Minion feel even more belittled. He was sure Megamind was trying his best. He was a hero, and Minion knew how much he could kick butt with his occasional confidence and cockiness, but this was a different type of evil. It dealt with magic nobody even knew existed, and Megamind had never had exposure to any of it. He didn't even believe in it, really.

"Do you really want to know what condition your blue friend is in now?" Narcissa said in a tone one would use with a young child.

Before Minion could interject, Andromeda blurted it out. "He's been possesed through genius ways by one of my potions and will be delayed in his trying to uprise. I've planned the whole thing out with Narcissa. He'll try to find the curative berry, and that'll take more time than he bargained for."

"Plus", Narcissa added, "when the "berry" is found, the possessed part of him will actually split apart from him entirely, leaving the Rebels with a mess of a sadistic killer on their hands."

Minion took in all the information, and could only look up at them with rounded, fearful eyes. "And that is not all, little piscine servant. I've planned a special way of demise for your master you will find most suitable."

"Suitable?" the fish spluttered. "How is killing everyone suitable?"

"Because you are all thorns in my side, and I'm through with you!" the blonde hissed, spraying spit onto the glass of the tank. "It's pleasureble to kill your enemies, is it not? Didn't you use to terrorize your city in Michigan?"

"Not me specifically!" Minion protested. "Sir always made the evil plans, but he was never really evil! He made sure he didn't kill anyone in his plans! He's not a sadistic murderer like you!"

Narcissa ground her teeth, and slammed her fist on the table so hard, water in Minion's little tank sloshed over the rim.

"What a pathetic little moron", she muttered. "He insults me! That was not evil! If anyone is truly evil, there would be carnage. I love carnage."

"Mm, so do I", Andromeda agreed, licking her lips. The doctress stood up at trotted over to the table in the right side of the room that held the pins and voodoo dolls. She had recently made one in the likeness of Minion, and she picked it up between her fingers, also getting a pin in the other hand.

She walked back over to her séance table and held the two objects in front of Minion dangerously. "Would you like to see an example of carnage at the flick of my wrist?" Andromeda purred lowly.

Minion simply dropped down to the bottom of the tank and sighed sadly.

"Well, it would be fairly easy to make anyone get a spontaneous stigmata with one pin and one doll… and it would be like squashing a fly to simply torture the victim by throwing them around the room… and I could amputate an arm and dig out the muscles with one little snip.

"But slow, sweet torture is best before tearing a doll apart if it is wanted."

Andromeda moved her wrist in, and grazed the fabric of Minion's doll on the side with the tip of the pin. He flinched in his tank a little and rubbed his side with his fin…

Only to cry out in pain the next time. He was poked on the head a little bit further, but still not enough to draw blood.

"See what I mean?" Andromeda smiled. "So easy!"

This time, she poked Minion's doll on one of the green tendrils atop his head, and he cried out even louder.

Tilting his coppery eyes upward, he could see a thin inkling of pretty green blood spiral up in the water.

"Stop", he said firmly, "just stop."

Andromeda held a venomous gaze, but didn't poke the doll anymore. She was saving that part for later.

"You do see what I can wreak upon you now, don't you?"

"Yes, yes, I see!" Minion said, exasperated.

"You watch that toothy mouth of yours", Narcissa warned as she reached into the tank and bopped him on the head. She didn't know just how much she was provoking him.

"I'll show you a mouth!"

Before Narcissa could draw her hand back out of the tank, Minion had clamped onto her whole hand, sinking his sharp teeth deep inside her skin. His jaw was latched tightly into her flesh, not about the let go anytime soon.

Narcissa shrieked and flailed her arm, and it was the first time Minion had seen her in any real panic like this. Biting her was both pleasant and satisfying, but her blood did taste vile.

Then, a moment later, he was launched halfway across the room, yelping in sursprise. Before he went flying, he had seen a flash of pink light and he was blown backwards away from Narcissa's hand.

The poor fish landed on the carpet with a watery _squelch_, and he himself started to panic a little since he had a feeling the two women would never be kind enough to return him to the water until he started gasping and wheezing.

"You will pay for that one little fishy!" he heard Andromeda's raspy voice snarl. He felt her bony hands on his tiny round body, lifting him up into the air to look into her beady eyes. Narcissa stood close by, nursing her wound somehow with her magic. Her intact hand hovered over her destroyed one, where Minion would see the bitemarks he'd made and the flesh he'd torn. White light from her other hand was raining down on the bloodied one, slowly meding the flesh back together.

Andromeda licked her lips deviously and started to close her hand tightly around Minion's scaly little body so he choked. She loved his reactions. Doing this to anyone made her feel happy.

"Water…" the pihrana started to cough, but hopelessly knowing that they would only plunk him back into the tank when he was on the verge of suffocating.

"Ooh!" Andromeda brightened with an idea to torture Minion even further, and started to juggle him in her hands to make him sick. Narcissa looked up from her work to watch, and started laughing evilly along with her partner.

Minion gave hoarse coughs each time he was flung into the air by the beast of a voodoo doctress. He felt like he did after the defeat of Titan. He really did nearly die before Megamind had tossed him into the nearby fountain, but he'd had enough life to put on the little act beforehand.

But now, this was serious. These were the villains that didn't ever horse around with anything, and worst of all, carnage and blood were their two favorite things. What could they have done to Sir and Miss Ritchi? Were they even alive?

Just as Minion panicked again at the mere thought, he screamed another time. Andromeda had chucked him from her hands, and made a spot-on basket in the tank, where Minion hit the glass bottom painfully, but breathed in the water deeply.

He spun around to face two wild-faced maniacs eyeing him scornfully.

Oh no.

Andromeda reached for the Minion voodoo doll, and squished it once in her hands for good measure, making the icthyoid wince in pain. Then the most painful thing.

Andromeda actually took the plush fin of the doll in her hand, tugged on it a little…

Then her mouth clamped down hard on it.

* * *

><p>EIII! I told you! I warned you! You may all dehydrate me if you want! How could I do this to poor Minion?<p>

Well, it was Narcissa's and Andromeda's dialogue I'm most proud of in here XD There was a little delay for this chapter cuz there was this drama at school where someone put silica balls in someone's sandwich purposely, and then I told the counselor, and then the police showed up and gave this one kid a ride in their car... but at least the owner of the sandwich saw right through the prank and didn't eat the thing! This is a true story! Let's just say... HE IN TROUBLE! WOO! All the guys in my class are such mortal MORONS! No Valentine's for them EVER AGAIN!

Speaking of Valentine's... I have this Mega iPod Shuffle fic I'll be posting as the seasonal gift! I'm getting behind on it as I type, so I have to debate... chapter 30, or theme 3? IDK. I'll go to Deviant art :P


	30. Chapter 30

OMAGOD OMAGOD CHAPTER 30! HAPPY BDAY MYSTERIOUS! This took me a MONTH to write! Sorry for keeping all you fans drooling and dying! Especially you, Shiriter! XD You are going to have an enormous EPILEPTIC FANSEIZURE right about now! I know how much you love this story! :3

And to all my newer readers, STAY TUNED! PLEEEZ! You're going to love every sneaky little plot twist I incorporate into this, and the biggest one will be a certain mystery Megamind decides to unravel for himself to strike Narcissa where it hurts. I AIN'T TELLIN' Y'ALL ABOUT IT!

UPDATE ON REAL WORLD STUFF: I got the Megamind Mega Collection comic book I've been waiting for over half a year for, and my reaction was the same as Shiriter's is right now on this chapter. I watched the original Planet of the Apes. I got a Deviant Art account. I DID ALL THAT WHILE I WAS GONE! GO CHECK OUT MY PAGE!

ENJOY! I really love how this one was written! X) AND IT'S LONG JUST FOR ALL YOU FANS!

* * *

><p>Chapter 30<p>

"If ya screw up on this job with me, there'll be serious consequence, mind you", Eboni warned in her monotone of a voice, tigerfish fins rippling in the water. "I've got a big ol' load of poison just on m'self righ' now."

Annabelle rolled her eyes. "You seriously think I want to mess up guarding everyone from the mermaids?" she questioned. Eboni cringed at the sound of her chipper, tinny little voice. Annabelle sometimes ground on the vampire's nerves, but it would soon be worse than the other way around if her secrets were found out. Eboni secretly prayed that her waterproof communicator would not begin to vibrate while she was on guard. She'd have to take the holographic call… and Annabelle would see…

Her pale hand ghosted over the leather utility belt still strapped on her waist. _Don't vibrate._

"Well", Annabelle laughed humorlessly, "we obviously need a plan in case a mer-dork goes into carnivore mode on us. Any ideas?"

Eboni grunted; a sound the Rebels had translated into something that went along the lines of, "I'm thinking."

"Well, they migh' not see me as an intruder. Mermaids have really differ'ntiating… folaige." Eboni mused, holding one of her ruffled and striped dorsals up in the water.

"The probl'm is… mermaids don't get this pale. Plus their skin is usually green o' blue n' scaled."

"You could pass as a younger one", Annabelle considered.

"No, I couldn't", Eboni reminded matter-of-factly. "Narcissa only owns adult mermaids because sh' thinks th' younger ones can't put up a figh'."

Annabelle scoffed. The little ones tended to be even feistier than the adults, in reality.

"Well, that's pretty stupid if you ask me."

"Thas' just it", Eboni sniped. "I didn't."

"What a grump…" Annabelle murmured to herself as she paddled her mutated feet, and her dark, vampiric partner followed grudgingly.

* * *

><p>Megan swam through the water, now kicking herself at how she went alone to find Aidan. Alone! Of all places! Her mind could be so stupid and clouded up with her goals ahead, that sometimes she didn't even know what she was issuing, and sometimes, let alone acknowledge.<p>

Her absolute worst weakness was the dude she had to rescue on her own right now. It was as if her mind and her conscience were having a constant combat as useless and repetitive as Megamind's and Metro Man's lifetime charades of good and evil, and witty banter. All the Rebels knew this side of her, and she felt ashamed of it. It just wasn't like her to succumb so easily to a person of all things…

Blankly stating, she had a crush on the Infernoi boy. Everyone knew that except Aidan himself. His ignorance was mostly from the fact that he always got wrapped up in plans for uprises, and he didn't normally socialize with Megan for resons of his own.

He returned the feeling, unbeknownst to her as well. And the other Rebels—mostly Annabelle—thought this circle of hidden feelings was a totally idiotic thing, but they all had promised to keep their secrets. Annabelle usually got bad cases of foot-in-the-mouth if she got particularly impatient or fed up with this rotation of emotions that only needed one simple confession to make all go away.

But no, Megan and Aidan were intent on keeping their "secrets." It was the one thing they were afraid of. They were brave in the face of snakes, dragons, and even demons, but afraid of confessions. It was such a simple thing; so common, and so very degrading to both their hard-earned reputations. Would the truth ever be told?

Megan scoffed and rolled her sapphire eyes at her irrational thoughts. It was just too unlike her, period. A tough, tomboyish leader didn't have these types of feelings, especially towards a person who barely even spoke to her, because he felt the same way. It was just all a big mess—all so stupid! When would it end?

Megan growled to herself and tried to loosen the grip the thoughts held on her brain, but they felt like staying for a little longer. How exactly did they first crush on each other?

Still unknown to the handicapped fairy, Aidan had crushed on her first, but then soon after Megan also started reluctantly seeing him as more than her friend material for a few forbidden years, and then gradually the rendenzvous became even more awkward as Megan visited his realm over and over. And she felt most guilty for the feeling, since she was the only one who could visit him, and not vice versa.

So she stopped altogether, but during the one last visit she had gotten kidnapped by the very closely monitoring Narcissa, and tortured painfully until her friend's secrets foamed out of her mouth like poisonous, betraying rabies.

And pretty soon, she had Annabelle and Aidan both permanently at her side, along with Kaitoia found in the prisons shortly after, and then Eckere, and then the iffy vampire Eboni was thrown in at the last minute.

Her story, yet to be told, was not pretty. She had not yet told any Rebels about it, and it only made it worse by the second she stayed silent.

Megan's rebellion always had its awkward moments. Actually, more often than not, her group was like a rockband on stage when they battled in an ongoing war; grandiose and dramatic, and more often than not, had bloodstains, scars, and bruises dotted throughout. Then, once backstage, it was a gang of kids and one adult just working together and trying to preserve the whole world for the good of everyone. There had been sacrifices, very temporary new recruits that couldn't last a day in the field and perished, and there had been fights—small and large. It was difficult to run a society of people against Narcissa, since the Rebels could not possibly do everything on their own. Their trusted allies—The Resistance and The Dissent—had important jobs that the Rebels had no time for. They did some dirtier work for them, and even easy tasks that could be overlooked. The Rebels were the most respected, though, because of their seasoned leader Megan. Her fairy race had superior learning skills—they could learn nearly anything the first time they were shown how to do it, and that included how to survive and have leadership.

But they had no control over the force of emotions. Infernoi were the same; worse even. They were supposed to be affectionate towards loved ones.

Aidan didn't seem to have matured to that level quite yet… at least Megan didn't think it, most likely because she insisted to everyone except the fireboy that even a spark was not possible, no pun intended.

Megan just had no idea how little she knew of his anatomy. She'd never bothered to ask the weird question. He had just reached the ripening age—or what humans called "puberty." All the more reason Aidan had to conceal his feelings for her, no matter how much he protested against himself deep, deep inside. It seemed the best fights the friends fought were the circles of intense bickering back and forth about what was best in their minds.

Plus, it was simply _not right_ for them to have these types of feelings! Their reputations clearly listed that they had no time for such luxuries as to have feelings towards another gender. Painful, because it tore both tweens apart from each other more than it was needed. Torn feelings caused teamwork to have a hairline crack right down the middle if the emotions were too much to cope with.

Having a crush got in the way of saving the world. Who knew?

Megan temporarily stopped swimming to ponder it. She was tempted now to just turn around and abandon him for the good of her rep, but stopping Narcissa required everyone from every rebellious group to succeed, and just leaving him in his prison would be cruel anyway. He hated being submersed in water for obvious reasons.

And The Feeling was getting the better of her again as well. So she was a slave to sappiness.

"I'm never going to tell him…" she murmured quietly to herself as she descended deeper in the water to where that companion resided in his prison.

* * *

><p>They were becoming more and more clustered as they moved into more open waters, a sense of danger becoming overpowering, making them sick to their stomachs.<p>

Megamind could feel Roxanne's tentacles now as they squashed together in single file, trying their best not to be noticed by anything or anyone. Kaitoia had the sharpest of sense at the moment, so she led. Megamind trusted her and knew that at the first sign of a threat, she would zip through the water like a dragonfly dragging the two other humans with her whether they were poised or not.

They still felt like easy prey in the spacious environment, though. Who knew when a mermaid would dart out and attack them in a blur or scales at the speed of light? It set each one of them wondering which task was the most dangerous, but it all pretty much depended on the condition of the underwater life. Megan's mission could have been more risky, especially with her going it alone, but then it was topped by Eboni's and Annabelle's assignments that involved tangles with mermaids head-on if needed.

They forgot about Eckere back on the surface. Either she was staring into space on the rock she had sat on an hour ago, or she was kidnapped. They'd have to see when this ordeal was done.

"Kaitoia—"

"SH!" she sushed at her brother. Megamind shut his mouth, but he was still curious about what exactly they were doing, and where the berry cave was located. He couldn't help but feel very exposed in the wide open water, and the back of his neck started to prickle at his thoughts, once again getting paranoid about the fact that there could be one or many mermaids anywhere.

Suddenly he felt a sharp tug on his arm that nearly yanked it right out of its socket, and he in turn automatically grabbed Roxanne's arm and the two were propelled by Kaitoia to behind a particular rock spire where she started breathing with great effort.

"Mermaid?" Megamind questioned quickly as he pressed himself and Roxanne hurriedly against the stone.

"Err, I would make it plural to aboiut five or six of them right behind us." Kaitoia just very quickly poked her head out enough to eye them warily. Exactly five of the fair aquatic maidens were there in the clearing they had been about to pass—looking as if they were patrolling, which made Kaitoia keep her guard up even more.

When Megamind tried to take a look, he was immediately shoved back into the protection of the tall rock.

"And Roxanne gets to see…?"

"Be quiet!" Kaitoia growled dangerously.

Megamind made a little pout and decided to swim round the back of the rock to see how the mermaids were a threat, and still, he had that burning, risky feeling of intense curiosity. He had never seen a mermaid before.

He had never seen one because he was not supposed to.

They were long, streamlined, and had a certain exotic beauty that looked mostly Asian as he had guessed. They swam in large circles, occasionally stopping to quip at each other in a language Megamind didn't understand, and more often than not pulling out hand mirrors to admire themselves just about every ten seconds.

Suddenly Megamind was stuck like that; staring at the mermaids, and his tail seemed not to want to duck back into the safety of the rock that hid him. His grip started to tighten on the Staff, and it warmed a bit underneath his fingers, throbbing ever so slightly. It was warning him.

_Don't do it! Don't swim! Don't go near them!_

But for some reason, Megamind paid no heed to the admonition of his Staff, and before he knew it, he had caught the attention of all five mermaids, since he had given his tail a pump that left him right in the middle of that water… in plain sight.

Instantly Kaitoia's eyes widened and her heart stopped. Her blood ran cold, and seemed to drain from her face so much, it was paler than the sky. Roxanne looked up at her with wide, concerned eyes that asked just what Megamind had gotten himself into.

"No…!" the female alien cried, stealing a fast look behind the rock just in case her eyes had decieved her, and he was patiently waiting for them like a good boy. Of course, he wasn't.

"Syx, you're so foolish!" she hissed under her breath.

"What's going to happen to him?" Roxanne demanded.

Kaitoia's eyes flickered in a frenzy, but settled on the reporter for a bit. "I don't know, but it will be bad either way. Megamind's a male, and temporarily a male mermaid, to be exact. This is bad, very bad…"

Roxanne frowned at her tendedncy to leave things unsaid, and the wheels of her clever mind started turning. Male. The mermaids were female, and judging by the way they had come up to him and were now swimming around him…

"Oh ho ho, not if God can help it", she muttered, anger beginning to simmer as she started to make her way over to the swarming mermaids around her possesed boyfriend. She was stopped by a pair of surprisingly strong blue hands clamping over her shoulders, and soon she was looking into a scolding pair of shocking ruby eyes.

"Do you want to make it worse, missy?" Kaitoia said in a dangerous voice of silk. "Do you want them to come after us and turn us into sushi with one swipe of their fingers?"

The way Kaitoia stared into her soul with her astonishingly persuading orbs caused Roxanne to slump with a smarmy scowl written across her eyebrows.

"To tell you the truth, no", she spat.

Kaitoia shook a finger at her, warning her to watch it. "We have to wait and watch and plan a way to snatch Megamind out of their grasp. It's all a matter of timing and presicion, and snap out of your attitude if you would do so kindly."

Roxanne complied, silenced for the moment and intently scrutinized the situation Megamind was in with the mermaids at the moment.

He was mobbed by all five of them, and slowly his perception seemed to be getting a bit imparied, though the Staff still rested safely at his side. He felt the rushes of water on his skin, tickles of their fins on his and gentle, curious hands exploring every part of him they could reach. And strangely…

It was lulling him. It was peaceful.

"Hey guys, there's nothing wrong with these mermaids…" he said in a voice that was slurred beyond comprehension, and not loud enough to reach his girlfriend or his sister anyway. Oh well. They would see that these particular creatures were not dangerous, and maybe they'd even come and join him. What a mellow feeling! It was amazing!

"Is he drunk?" Roxanne wondered out loud to Kaitoia. "He just sounded like the time he kidnapped me in a brewery and didn't bring a water bottle when he got parched…"

"In a way he is", Kaitoia answered the reporter. "Drunken and stinking with the pheromones the mermaids are rubbing on him. I can smell it from here."

Roxanne breathed the water in deeply, and this time instead of it smelling vaguely of kelp and sandalwood, she caught a hint of something sweeter like… cotton candy and pink sand.

"What are they doing to him?" Roxanne grouched, more desperate than ever to have her question answered.

"Seducing him. If we don't get him out soon, he'll be their forever slaves and besotted with every single one of them."

Roxanne grimaced in shock and disgust. "Well, what are we waiting for?" she hissed, but then her shoulders were clawed at again as Megamind's sister tugged her back behind the rock that was their hiding place.

"I already have a plan in motion, relax. Once they go a little further and are distracted enough, we'll grab him and scram. I know it'll work."

Roxanne raised a wary eyebrow.

"Ahem! I've been plotting and planning and mapping out attacks for the better portion of my life! If you're looking for cockiness, look into that high little messed-and-possessed avatar of my brother that stinks of a carnival midway. If I knew this would be more difficult, I wouldn't be suggesting this."

Kaitoia's slightly out-of-character comment made Roxanne chuckle momentarily before her attention was directly focused on her drunken boyfriend.

It was amazing the two girls weren't laughing hysterically at the look strewn upon his face, but they were in a particularly dire situation that didn't quite entail the need for amusement. The wide smile, lidded eyes, and erratic tail movements only showed signs of his condition worsening.

Megamind thought these maidens were pure bliss, and continued to placidly ignore the desperate reasoning coming from the Staff in his hand. He was having way too much fun here! The Staff had to be wrong. What could be bad about these mermaids?

Gradually their movements swarming him because more aimed to seduce him, he noticed. That only cause the merest inkling of panic to bubble up in his conscience; a tiny part of himself not yet drugged by pheromones that tried to scream, _This is wrong! This is wrong! You're betraying Roxanne! What do you think you're doing, letting these fish get ahold of you? _

But the little cynical quip was shoved back under when Megamind now felt the tickle of hundreds of little anemones on his back, and the back of his head coming into contact with something solid.

The prettiest mermaid of all five of them had pushed him up against a bed of anemones on another wall of rock, looking deeply into his luminescent eyes with her astonishing electric blue ones.

Megamind smiled back. How could he not? She was beautiful from the tips of her green pointed ears all the way to the frilled tips of her fins. Megamind didn't even take note of the fact that all of them were missing seashells like the ones Kaitoia had obsessed over, and besides, if he had, he would've told himself that real mermaids of legends didn't wear them anyway in all those pictures that depicted them in a coy little pose on a rock with long hair streaming down their fronts.

Roxanne was appalled. How much willpower did Megamind have? Just how much? Unless he was under a very strong spell, she would be angry at him for eternity for doing these sensual acts with a mermaid. She was growing more and more ravenous with jealousy. How dare they?

Roxanne was getting so enraged, Kaitoia had to hold her back from tackling the posse of mermaids in a knot of tentacles and tails that would give them away without a doubt. She was pretty strong using one arm, considering the other one was at her mouth, the full length of her pinkie finger past her lips.

Megamind was at complete peace. Even his staff had calmed down! Good Staff, he thought. He could concentrate more on the stunning mermaid in front of him.

Because she suddenly leaned forth and gave him a kiss.

Roxanne almost screamed, but Kaitoia popped her finger out of her mouth and stuck it in Roxanne's instead. That would distract her, and luckily it worked. Kaitoia looked on at her intoxicated brother while the scarred reporter tried to yank the blue finger out of her mouth.

This mermaid was pure heaven, though one small hairline of his conscious self quietly mumbled, _I'm so sorry, Roxanne._ Then he was gone, and Megamind entered a very strange state of mind. It was as if almost every sentient thought had fled him; even part of the Addiku. Who was controlling here? He didn't know, and that was the last thing on his mind at the moment. The only thing he felt was the angel of a mermaid kissing him with lips so soft, he was afraid he might bite them off if he wasn't careful. And she tasted like… something like the smell of pink sand if you could eat it right out of the air.

"That's got to be vile", Kaitoia muttered to herself with a grimace. Her finger was about to fall off with Roxanne biting hard on it, so she wrenched it from her jaws, being sure to cover up the blood that oozed out. Mermaids smelled blood like sharks could, and that was a gruesome way to be discovered.

But nothing was more gruesome than a mermaid's kiss. They disguised the taste of their mouths while they were seducing any wayward male, and the spell that drugged them made the maiden's lips seem to taste sweet and heavenly instead of their real flavor: rotted meat and dry bone amid sharp, stout pihrana teeth. It was quite disgusting, and Megamind was going to have a gross surprise in his mouth if or when he was broken free of the spell.

Roxanne gave up struggling and didn't even try to bat at the two jealous tears that trickled from one blue eye. No one could see tears in the water, and she needed to get a few out. Watching her boyfriend—even if he was half-buried beneath the grip of an Addiku—kiss another… half-woman right in front of her eyes was heartbreaking, even if he was drunken by magic and couldn't do anything about it. It was just a terrible thing to watch, and Roxanne wanted to grab him from the mermaids so badly, but Kaitoia was doing the right thing holding her back.

* * *

><p><strong>ZOMG SORRY FOR SPONTANEOUS AUTHOR NOTE DX This gave me the SHIVERS to write about this between the mermaid and Megamind... IT WAS JUST SO HAWWT! Dang it, I've ruined the moment... my most humble apologies...<strong>

* * *

><p>Megamind could feel the mermaids all around him; caressing and fondling him to their heart's content. It felt amazing, but not as amazing as the heavenly lips pressed deeply into his, and gradually pushing him more and more on the tickly anemone rock so that Megamind body was firmly glued to the slender mermaid's. She was the slightest bit slimy, but then so was he. Her green skin was suppler than any skin he'd ever felt.<p>

Megamind was falling deeper and deeper in his drunken trance as his arms automatically reached up and tugged the mermaid closer, trying to gain purchase with the lithe, delicate body rubbing against him.

Now Roxanne held her eyes closed so she wouldn't have to watch anything go on between the creature and her boyfriend. She knew if she did watch, she would get uncontrollable jealousy of the willingness Megamind seemed to be in this, even if it was only a spell lulling him into it.

Now completely placid and without a thought or care in the world, Megamind continued to heatedly kiss the mermaid, sucking gently on her plump lower lip, which made her moan something in a different language. He grinned into the kiss, bringing the lips into his mouth further, tasting its sweet flavor that was only intoxicating him dangerously further. Despite his sedated state, Megamind couldn't help but also feel a great sense of taboo in this act with the breathtaking mermaid. And, he thought oddly, taboo was bad. Taboo was the wonderful, mischevious, oh-so-accidental kind of bad that no one had to know about, since he was also ignoring the fact that his girlfriend and sister were intently watching him and waiting for an opening to save him from falling deeper into the force of the mermaid's seduction.

Oh, but he loved it. It sent the most pleasureable feelings shooting up his nerves and going haywire; almost short-circuiting with the numbing sensation of slender fingers running up and down the sides of his long jade tail and teasingly tweaking the scales. With the little rushes of water hitting his face and making his hair waver, and the soft sensual whispers that echoed in his ear with the pearly-smooth voices of the maidens that made him shiver, and soon a fire began to ignite within him.

He pulled the mermaid who was kissing him even closer to his chest, begging for more contact as he felt a long, thick, warm tongue slither into his mouth, clashing slowly with his own.

Kaitoia grimaced. "Ugh, they're snogging…"

Roxanne gave a low growl, annoyed by Kaitoia's unesscesary observation and itching to yank Megamind away from the mermaids and to safety.

"Simmer down, I was just—"

Kaitoia surpressed an appalled gasp as she took a closer look at what two mermaids were doing. Blood drained from her face, leaving it paler than the sunrise in the morning.

With wide, wanting eyes, a maiden with mid-length hair the color of wildfire, and another one with tied-up jet-black hair and Asian eyes were scrutinizing Megamind's staff with burning curiosity, not to mention bedazzlement. Kaitoia's breath hitched ever so slightly. Mermaids were suckers for anything sparkly or valuable, and once they had set their sights on a treasure, it was hard to keep them away from it. She hoped that, since there were two of them wanting the same thing, they would get distracted by the Staff in an argument over who took it for their hoard, but it was only half-possible.

They had to get him out of there soon, or he would be practically without power ever again,and useless for combat against Narcissa.

Slowly, and giggling chirpily, the two mermaids began to slowly slip the Staff from Megamind's grip, since he was much too engrossed with the turquiose-haired mermaid he was furiously making out with to notice anything else. Kaitoia started to panic, but thought and planned through it as best as she could, desperately watching for an opening where she could snatch her brother away to safety, and all the way over to the berry cave where the cure to his condition hopefully resided.

She hunched her shoulders, anticipating the right moment, and soon Roxanne's eyes snapped open when she felt her arm getting squeezed to death by Kaitoia's raw excitement showing through physically in her muscles.

One more lick and another nip at the battling lips of her brother and the mermaid, and another tug from the other two at the Staff, Kaitoia decided.

"NOW!"

Kaitoia and Roxanne reacted almost instinctually, swimming faster than bullets as Roxanne barrelled for Megamind, tearing him apart from the mermaid's hungry mouth forcefully with a small pop of suction.

She briefly glimpsed blood from Megamind's lips spiral up in ringlets around his head, and a completely bemused look was written on his face, his mind now halfway stuck between in a trance and recovering.

Blood.

The mermaids all turned to Roxanne, ignoring Kaitoia for the time being and roared. Their faces suddenly became hideous and contorted into vicious expressions that made their pupils engorge into one big black splotch on the eyeball, and then their mouths dropped open unnaturally as long, writhing tongues flopped out, tasting the water for that precious blood they had smelled.

Roxanne and Kaitoia thought the same thing at the same time: they were sushi. And they still had to collect Megamind's Staff from the jet-haired mermaid, who gripped it firmly in her claws and showed no sign of giving it up soon.

"SWIM!" Kaitoia ordered. "I'll hold them off!"

"No!" Roxanne exclaimed automatically, wanting to help Kaitoia but madly wondering what she should do with Megamind in his state.

With a grumble, she decided on something risky. She pushed him way far away from the mermaids with one hard shove, and then shook a warning finger at him to stay put no matter what. Despite his recovering circumstance that was still half-hypnotized and half-sentient, he nodded with his eyes still a bit cloudy.

Roxanne dove back into the action, only for her arm to be immediately sliced of some stitches on a scar, and more blood to be spilling out into the water. Her hand flew up to cover it, but it was too late.

She was their new target.

While she swerved sharply up, looking as though she would be cornered at the surface, the mermaids followed, but then Roxanne shot downwards as fast as she could, not having a plan completely mapped out in her head, but a vague inkling of what she was going to do.

She stopped close to the sandy bottom of the sea, sending up a cloud of the stuff in her speed. She was tempted to zip away again when she saw the terrifying faces of the mermaids coming at her full-on, but she furrowed her brow, aimed and held her hands out.

When she found the stiff rod, she tugged as hard as she could, and unbelieveably it came free.

There was a bloodcurdling scream, and hands around her shoulders too soft and the nails too short to be mermaid.

As Roxanne drifted quickly away from the scene, completely petrified with the hands still firmly enclosed on her, she saw a blinding cloud of midnight black ink billow up out of nowhere, and suddenly Megamind was also by her side as well.

What had just happened?

"K-Kaitoia…"

"No time to talk, because we need to scram right now in case you didn't notice, and get the stupid berry as quickly as possible because now the mermaids are on the prowl for us!" she said at high speed.

Roxanne tried to look at Megamind who was now fully returned to his normal thoughts, and swimming with speed that nearly matched Kaitoia's, but the revolted look on his face was obvious. He could now taste what was truly in a mermaid's mouth.

"Why does it taste like I just ate some pig slop?" he complained through his heavy breathing, gills flaring at his sides. He tried to cover his mouth with his hand, but the water zipping by him at top speed prevented him from doing that. He was starting to look as green as the rest of his aquatic foliage.

Roxanne, through her shock, still held fast to Megamind's Staff. She would never let it succumb to a mermaid's hoard. He needed it to be useful in aiding the possible downfall of Narcissa's plot for encompassing the world with her discord of chaotic creatures she kept imprisoned. And judging by the way his aura had shown back at Annabelle's, he was apt to be quite powerful if he had control of the power he possessed.

"What exactly happened with the mermaids?" Megamind asked, still curious. "All I remember is them swarming around me… but they weren't killing me…"

Roxanne regained the ability of speech, and aslo vaguely realized that it was she who had shot the ink at the mermaids, since she had been terrified at them charging for her head-on, so she had released the ink in defense, she guessed. She was temporarily octopus.

"They were seducing you. Hard."

Megamind grimaced in disbelief. "Did…," he began, "Oh god, did they kiss me?"

Roxanne nodded, throwing him a smug look, watching his face for his hilarious expressions he had when he screwed up.

"I'm sorry", he suddenly said in his own proper voice, but then it reverted back to the Italian accented Addiku one. "I'm so sorry, I would never…"

"Hush", Roxanne chided. "You were under a powerful spell caused by their pheromones… or so I was told by Kaitoia."

"You smelled just like cotton candy!" his twin added suddenly, still swimming her behind off, but had room for a few wisecracks.

"Mermaid pheromones…" Megamind mused to himself. The inner Megamind rapidly took over his state of mind without hesitation for the moment.

"Interesting. Is there time to tell me more?"

"Ok, if you really want to know", Kaioia consented coyly.

* * *

><p>"The mermaids failed to slow them", Andromeda blurted out, looking intently at the crystal orb atop the fake Staff. "I see… ink."<p>

Narcissa did not respond. She had not been talking for the past hour and for that whole time period, she had been standing with her front to the wall, immobile as she settled inside herself to think. To consider.

Andromeda's eyes wavered uncertainly, not knowing whether to call her partner's attention or not. Surely she would want to know about the Rebels progression?

"Milady, I said they've escaped."

"And I don't particularly care at the moment, doctress", the villainess answered, her voice loud and strong and startling after not talking for the past hour.

"You've conjured up something crafty, haven't you?" Andromeda asked slyly and excitedly. She smiled twistedly, showing her white teeth that were ever so slightly pointed.

"Indeed I have, and it will work without a doubt", she proclaimed, turning around to face her comrade, long dark green robe flying.

"Are you sure it is the final plan, mistress?" the voodoo doctress asked warily. She had been changing coordinates more and more often the past days, and Andromeda just wanted to be absolutely sure.

"Of course!" Narcissa said with a murderous smile. "I've been considering everything to myself this past hour, and I've come to my final decision."

Andromeda's pupils shrunk to little dots as cannibalistic thoughts flooded her mind, and the thought of all the rebellions' blood spewing made her simply sigh with pleasure. "Will it involve carnage?" she said, her tone alone implying that she absolutely adored the idea.

Narcissa grinned at her comrade, desiring the same thing.

"Oh, for sure. I'm surprised you didn't expect it from me before."

Narcissa became more hungry-looking as she advanced on the doctress dramatically. "I will make sure the Rebels suffer the most, and out of all of them, I'm debating whether to kill Roxanne, Megan, or Kaitoia last for Boy Blue to witness hopelessly."

As she monologued again, Narcissa pretended to be on the prowl for Andromeda much like a tiger. "But the Rebels don't let their guards down easily. For now, I won't protect the surrounding area from break-ins until the final battle is upon us. Then they'll get an extra burst of that classic cockiness they always have, and BAM!" Narcissa pounced, her nose an inch away from Andromeda's mocha one.

"One by one… a complete bloodbath… and Johnny will only be spared so he watches the excruciating tragedy of his comrades all dying so no one he loves is left. And soon… he'll kill himself. Either that or," Narcissa suddenly brightened, "he'll succumb to US!"

Andromeda smiled widely and nearly screamed with pleasant anticipation at the exciting prospect of that despicable plot Narcissa had spent so much time weaving in her head, and obsessing about.

"How do you think the Addiku will hold up?" she added, nearly exploding with genius. "Well, he will hold up, but how do you think the blue boy will react?"

Narcissa widened her eyes scarily. "Ooh, it was worth it to enslave the parasite. He'll be the complete opposite of the alien… which means he'll be a sadistic, bloodthirsty, insane killer that'll further distract their little group. Just a precaution, really, but rather pleasing when you think about it."

Andromeda was ecstatic with evil glee. Spinning her fake Staff with one hand, she continued into more engrossing matters.

"And what to do with Eboni…"

"Oh, that dirty little spy", Narcissa said brightly. "She'll obey. I would much appreciate her to suck Blue's blood if it's necessary. If she goes against my will she'll be staked, and Victorians are made of dignity. Stakes are the most undignified way for a vampire to go."

Andromeda was positively drooling. "Ahh… make sure I'm there to watch all the carnage that goes on. It could make us more powerful seeing everyone suffer."

They had their own plans they snickered evilly at. Rebels had others.

* * *

><p>Megan was panicking.<p>

True, mortal panic like the kind you get when someone jumps out at you in the pitch-black darkness in a quiet room, only the climatic, instantaneous fear lasted much longer. She swam and swam as hard as she could, deeper and deeper where that telltale orange glow was hiding inbetween that cleft that separated the large rocks, but she found it becoming harder; she felt herself start to _float_.

The magic was wearing off on her, but she was not abandoning Aidan for anything. She'd drown if she had to; she'd drown for him.

Megan paddled madly, kicking and flailing her feet with the slowly disappearing fins, and gasped for air in ragged breaths through half-gone gills. She would get Aidan, even if a swarm of carnivorous dwarf squid or even more mermaids came by. She had beedn able to avoid the sight of all the ones that had passed by her, since she was a master at survival and battle tactics.

But she could not evade the magic plant wearing off on her. Why had the effect been so instantaneous on her particularly? She and Annabelle and Eboni had crossed paths while on their own little missions, and by then Megan had found it uncomfortable to breathe. They seemed fine, but Annabelle was a bit antsy while she reported the number of mermaids they both had been seeing everywhere, and she just wanted to caution Megan since she was doing her job alone. Eboni then had been instructed to send a holographic call to Kaitoia's communication device she held in they utility belt she owned, and quickly they exchanged the statuses they had on their little duties. Kaitoia had reported the run-in with the mermaids, and warned them to lay low to be safe. When she had questioned Megan, Annabelle, and Eboni on their progress, Megan had not even mentioned how the effects of the plant were dwindling on her, since she didn't want anyone to come racing to her rescue. She predicted she had enough times if currents didn't deter her, or the fact that her temporary swim bladder was weakening.

Cockiness and insensitivity was truly what stopped her from reaching goals at times.

* * *

><p>Kaitoia arrived at the mouth of the cavern, totally out of breath. Her gills burnt. Her tail had just gone boneless. She felt awfully tempted to brace herself flat against the stone of the cave and drift down into the ominous darkness that gaped below to swallow her up, but she pressed one since she had experience with fatigue. She had endured it her whole life, and worse.<p>

Roxanne and Megamind floated nearby, anxious to right his condition at last. Megamind's heart beat haywire, wondering on the inside whether there would be a cure to extract the parasite. How would he react if there wasn't? What would he do?

Megamind was glad there was water surrounding him, or the girls would've seen him sweat more than an ice cube on the sidewalk in July. His gills were not flapping as quickly as Kaitoia's, but they were going wide open and snapping shut at a steady but heavy pace.

"Stay close", Kaitoia managed to get out amid her erratic breathing. Megamind gripped the Staff closer to himself, determined not to let anything even try to steal it again. They clustered together once more. The entrance to the cave was little more than pitch-black. "And make yourself as narrow as you can. Some people say there are deadly spikes lining this entrance, or carnivorous seaweed that sucks you in whole…"

"What now?" Roxanne questioned in bafflement.

"You do know by now that almost anything is possible around here, right Ritchi?"

"Kaitoia", Megamind hissed at his snarky twin.

"Roxanne", she corrected herself reluctantly.

The reporter sighed, obviously quite irritated by Kaitoia lately, but stayed close to Megamind as they made their ways in slowly and steadily.

They all lost sight of each other within moments, and Megamind was torn between feeling tingly and feeling safe when Roxanne inched even closer to him, carefully slinging an arm over his back so she wouldn't hurt his majestic crest that ran the length of his spine. He supposed he would also have to hold on to her in the same way, so he placed his own muscular arm around her waist in the same way. He nearly shuddered whole feeling her soft orange tentacles tangle with his tail again, now even closer.

He focused himself on swimming in a straight line behind his sister. He could only find out where to go by the rush of water on his face from her tail that only got a little irritating, but helped him find his way.

His tail fin gave rapid little flicks to propell him. But it was just _so_ hard to ignore how Roxanne was moving her tentacles in the same way to avoid touching the walls, and the way they brushed against the long length of his scaled appendage was driving him slowly nuts.

He unconsciously gave her a squeeze, causing her to yelp a little.

Kaitoia stopped dead and said, "What? What happened?"

"Nothing", the odd couple responded in unison.

But this time, when they continued down the completely black cave, there was a horrible CRACK!

Megamind felt a jolt of nerve-destroying electricity dash up his spine from the very tip of his fin to the base of his skull.

He shuddered uncontrollably, letting go of Roxanne, who watched the sudden light in the electrocution with fright. Kaitoia attepmted to turn her head around for a look.

Megamind had touched the walls.

And they, too, were lighting up.

The first jellyfish glowed a hazy orange-yellow. The surrounding ones took it as a cue and glowed as well.

Soon the entire cavern was blindingly bright, and every inch of it covered with deadly jellyfish. _Electric jellyfish!_

"What did you DO?" Kaitoia screamed at her brother, who floated dazed in the middle of the creatures, his entire body hammering so he had to struggle to keep his fingers around the Staff.

Things got worse.

The squishy creatures were tightening in their their numbers around the trio.

"We have to get out!" Kaitoia hollered. "Get out, get out, GET OUT!"

It was all Megamind's fault. He had touched the cave walls with no more than a brush of his fin, and now look what had happened! They'd all be killed by electrocution.

He attempted to move his tail again, but it jerked erratically, and there wasn't much room to move it anyway. He tried untensing the rock-hard muscles in his body, but they moved as slowly as molasses. At the speed the girls were trying to drag him, they'd be fried before they went a few more feet.

Even though he felt the menacing tingle of electricity drawing nearer and nearer to his skin; even though he knew his tail would get mutilated; even though it might kill him, he finally earned a burst of confident energy as the Staff in his weak hand flashed a bright electric blue, and with a swoop of his tail, he pushed them to safety.

The pain was enough to reduce his teeth to dust. With each pump of his now utterly mauled tail fin, he felt the blood-bubbling sting and scorch of the immense volts of electricity being sent up the length of his whole body when a simple touch was applied to any part of the jellyfish horde. In no time, the water was tainted with the raw scent of burning fish oil. His tail was getting cooked alive.

The glow began to dwindle in the Staff, whom was trying its best to give Megamind a bit of help and extra life in him, but was on its limit.

He raised his tail up one last time, and slammed it down.

He took a decadent breath of sweet air when he came in contact with the surface of an air pocket. Kaitoia and Roxanne surfaced as well, unfazed by any electrical shock, but fearing the worst for Megamind. He had taken a beating from the jellyfish, who seemed not to want to give pursuit to them outside the cave entrance.

When Roxanne merely brushed her thumb on his skin, she left a raw, red, slightly bleeding mark on the skin his shoulder, which seemed to be slowly melting.

"Oh my god…" was all she could whisper in sheer horror.

"What now, Kaitoia?"

"Where do you think we are?" the alien responded rather calmly. Roxanne heard the splash of water as Megamind's twin jumped in the air and snatched something off from a strange vine dangling from the cave ceiling. "Berry!"

Kaitoia landed back in the water and carefully swam up to Megamind, trying not to freak out by his condition. He was shuddering like a leaf in a hurricane, and his skin was being terrifyingly reduced to nothing more than melting wax.

Before his disturbed eyes could slide shut, Kaitoia quickly stuffed the berry she had picked into his mouth and helpd him chew it as much as she could.

Some of the antidote made it past his throat.

His eyes came open again, and within a few more moments, his skin was back to its normal, but still quite human state.

Megamind looked around, bemused, before officially being rendered speechless.

"What berry was that?" Roxanne questioned, hoping for a solid answer.

"A Discharger", Kaitoia answered with a flick of her fin under the water. "Removes all unnatural electricity and electrical trauma and its effects from a victim. If Syx hadn't been fed it sooner, he would've just sunk under the water into who-knows-where to have giant underwater woodlice eat his remains or something."

Roxanne looked stunned into as much silence as Megamind.

"What? Those things exist in human oceans, too!"

The had a short moment of more silence before the Addiku-transformed alien collected his thoughts and looked around the dim cave at all the strange growths hanging off the ceiling and lining the walls. They all did resemble berries, but they looked considerably more exotic than any of the Earth ones he knew. One that looked particularly appealing was a patch of bright red berries on the far right side of the air pocket that had twisting, thorny vines growing among it. The berries resembled raspberries, but were as big as apples, and they even looked like they were all throbbing like small hearts.

Kaitoia caught her brother eyeing it and said, "That berry temporarily restores someone's heartbeat after they die. It usually lasts about a day or two, but if you take one without need, it will actually make your heart stop instantly. Plus, all the berries will be slightly tempting, so all of you, don't get too wrapped up in their glory."

Megamind averted his eyes elsewhere. "So this berry that will rid me of the Addiku… is it even here?" he suddenly stiffened with worry, his heart hammering all of a sudden with the haunting prospect of the cure not being in the cave, and the Addiku inevitably taking over the real Megamind hidden deep within, wanting out so he could take on Narcissa fully. If the berry could not be found, he would disappear slowly from the face of the Earth and be replaced by a sadistic murderer.

"I'm strongly sure", Kaitoia stated without a hint of doubt. "Last anyone came up here, it was bursting with berries of all sorts; nearly making the cave glow with color, but now the berries have been dying and rotting a bit so that the already rare ones became even rarer."

_So much consolation_, Megamind thought to himself with one last shiver. The berry could be anywhere. The air pocket was about 14 feet wide, and 20 feet long, making it quite small, but the ceilings were high. The rock was not completely smooth, though, and Megamind could see some berries dangling out of ragged indentations that were sometimes out of reach.

"What does the berry look like?"

"It has gradient markings of any kind of color", Megamind's sister responded.

"And where is it?" Roxanne asked.

"For Pete's sake, I'm trying to find it here!" Kaitoia said, irritated. She continued pulling away loose boulders in a far corner of the cave, the occasional tiny bushel of berries popping out, but they obviously weren't the ones they were looking for.

Megamind and Roxanne shared a silent look that said the same thing: they were going to help her find the stupid thing if it killed them.

First Megamind dove under the water to check for more fruit. The cave was approximately 18 feet deep, and he could see the tiny passageway that had led them here.

He saw seaweed. He saw only a few bushels of incorrect berries. Maybe the rest just grew above water naturally.

He surfaced to find Kaitoia and Roxanne holding out what looked like an orange-and-red tennis ball to him, their eyes gleaming with excitement.

"You found it?" he asked eagerly. Kaitoia nodded gently, and swam over closer to him so her tail tickled on his skin.

"Now, I don't know what it tastes like since no one can describe how a magical berry tastes, even if it tastes like gallons of sewer water, or the best thing in the history of the universe", she informed him. "But I do know for sure this is the berry we're looking for."

Megamind began to take it to his lips, but-:

"Do you promise?" He said slyly, and was met with a very jumpy nod. He turned his head to look at Roxanne, who gave him a warm shrug.

Megamind bit into the berry.

His eyes lit up.

He began to take another bite, but his sister knocked it out of his hands.

"That's enough for you!" she scolded. "I forgot to tell you that if you take any more than one bite, the whole berry will disentigrate and will not work anymore, and this was the only one we could find."

The Addiku-possesed alien took a glance at the bitten fruit floating in the water, trying hard against his willpower not to grab it and eat the entire thing. It tasted just as Kaitoia had said; completely indescribably good. Better than chocolate. Better than coffee. Better than anything!

But suddenly a wave of sickness washed over him, and he spontaneously started to ache as if he had been kicked all over.

"Oh _god!_" he whined, knuckles white against his Staff. Kaiotia looked expectant, as if she knew what would happen, but really she didn't. And of course Roxanne had no clue.

Megamind immediately felt something unspeakable rise up the back of his throat.

"I'm going to—god!—be sick! Now!"

He covered his hot mouth and slippery lips, and before the girls could say a word, Megamind disappeared under the water, and zipped right out of the cave in one fluent motion.

He paddled as fast as he could, racing for the surface, which was at least a hundered feet from here. His stomach got sicker and sicker by the minute, and he was worried he wouldn't make it in time.

Then he felt something completely different.

He couldn't breath through his gills, for they were collapsing in on themselves and blending into his skin, leaving his lungs to do the work.

His heart thudded like a sledgehammer, and his body begged him for air. He realized through his panic that two things were happening at the same time. His spell was wearing off, and simultaneously the berry was working its own magic, and it was shockingly painful as the changes both went through him.

His lungs were on fire. He could feel his tail becoming less and less powerful each time his heart pounded.

Ten more feet. He was about to drown.

Five more feet.

Water flooded his lungs.

Surface.

His transforming body unfurled out of the water, silhouetted against the afternoon sky as droplets sprayed and he coughed up water. **(Little Mermaid reference... XD WHY DO I DO THE STUPID NOTES?)**He flopped against the shore like a beached whale, liquid streaming from his mouth as his breathing organs pushed it out.

"Megamind! You're back!"

He didn't need to know the face to recognize the voice. Eckere was alright! Giving her one glance amid his pain, he saw she was still waiting patiently on the rock, now scrutinizing the water for more surfacing Rebels.

She had no clue what exactly was going on under the water, but it was chaos.

Eckere now watched worriedly as Megamind's face twisted up in more excruciation than before. His tail felt destroyed. His spine felt about to collapse, and breathing was still a challenge as he tried not to breath in more of the water only to cough it back up again.

Some of the sand was turning scarlet.

The cyborg watched in horror as her antennae drooped, too shocked to lift them up. He was mutating.

She didn't want to watch.

Which magic being inflicted on him was worse? He tried to think through the trauma, but it was insanely difficult. Something more gruesome was happening to him.

His tail was going, and his normal legs were replacing it.

At the same time, he felt like he was splitting apart right at the core of his very being. It was indescribable like the taste of the berry. Two pains hammering his poor, weak nerves like musclemen pounding stakes into the ground to tie down a circus tent. Every pound sent him deeper and deeper to the point of no return, where the horrid feelings intensified. And he became completely numb.

Legs sprouted in place of the temporary tail, but he only vaguely acknowledged that he was bare naked and writhing on the beach, a whimpering cyborg looking away absolutely so she couldn't witness her creator go through this.

Megamind lay still.

Was he entering insanity when he glimpsed his own face looking down at him?

The avatar face.

He was holding a glimmering knife, the flat side pressing into Megamind's neck, about to kill him.

_Goodbye._

* * *

><p>SIG ALERT ON THE HIGHWAY OF YOUR TRAIN OF THOUGHT WHEN THE CHAPTER ENDED! Two overturned buses and a car rolling down the edge of a crag! Police are rushing to the scene where the most serious injury was found...<p>

YOUR DERAILED MIND AT MY CLIFFHANGER! MUAHAHAHA!

Okay, that was code for... *GIANT TROLLFACE*. I love cliffhangers that made you drop to your knees and beg to read more! What do you think happened? HAHA! For those of you angry at me for ending this so ABRUPTLY, sorreh! Chapters don't belt out a mile a minute! They require TONS of thinking! But as consolation, the next one might come out near my B-day, which is in about two weeks :D

SHIRITER I THINK YOU ARE GOING TO... UM... STAB ME. Dontcha hate these giant cliffhangers right in the middle of a climatic part where you were just about to recover from your squeeing seizure at my awesome yarnspinning, anf then the chapter ends with your heart pounding? *NOTHER GIANT TROLLFACE* YOU GOT TROLLED TWICE! I BROKE THE FOURTH WALL! XP

I'll write the next chaooy soon as I can. Just don't attack me in the meantime or send Malware onto my laptop XD


	31. Chapter 31

YES ITS HERE! I feel really... down. My birthday is this weekend and... my sister's been real sick, so that pretty much ruins plans for Disneyland we had... and plus it's likely it will rain on thet day anyway... WHY? What did I do to deserve this? I NEED A MIRACLE!

Reviwe to make me feel better? :) WARNING! following chapter contains more blood than usual, including thoughts of violent gore and coughing up blood! Reader discretion is advised! XD

* * *

><p>Chapter 31<p>

**A LITTLE BIT BEFORE… **

Kaitoia and Roxanne watched as Megamind had turned green once again, and had shot out of the skinny mouth of the cave just like that. How did he make it past the jellyfish? Were they even there? What had happened?

"Where's he going?" Roxanne demanded. "Anything could be waiting for him at the surface!"

Kaitoia held up a hand to stop Roxanne from going anywhere. She felt disturbed.

She was finding it… hard to breathe.

"On second thought, let's go!" she cried. They bolted for the cave mouth, delving into the water and darting out in one fast motion. Now Roxanne could not deny the also very odd feeling she was getting, but she put two and two together and deduced that her spell was wearing off very quickly. She needed to surface.

Two distinctive blurs suddenly cut through the water in front of her, one of them screaming and one of them only opening her magenta eyes wider in fear.

"Roxanne, thank god!" Annabelle heaved, voice still a bit distorted through the bubble on her head. Eboni began to shove at Annabelle, urging her forward and away from something. Kaitoia's interest was averted, and she swam back over to the small group of some Rebels.

"There was a MERMA—"

Eboni finally clapped a hand over the cloudsprite's mouth, silencing her once and for all. "Mermaids are comin'. I'd est'mate about one whole pod headed righ' this way."

Roxanne and Kaitoia shared a panicked look. There was still one lone girl out there, not doing so well off, and she hadn't been warned!

"Megan!" they exclaimed in unison. "Warn Megan!"

* * *

><p>No.<p>

She was transforming faster and faster to the point where she had to hold her breath instead of breathe through her now nonexistent gills. Her utterly, and long-destroyed wings were useless in helping her paddle down where she needed to go. She just needed a bit more traction, and then she'd be able to get Aidan and leave!

In the far off distance she heard a haunting noise which made her stop and prick up her pointed ears. She held on to a rock, which barely kept her down in the water.

The foreign language. Screaming and hissing.

Just as she had suspected. Mermaids.

_This ought to be fun,_ she thought to herself, trying her best to make her breath last longer. Paddling with her now normal feet, kicking madly and using a surrounding rock to help her go deeper, she found Aidan.

_It was him._

The Infernoi boy was unconscious, squeezed deeply betweeen two large rocks in the pitch-blackness, the only soft glow coming from the gelatinous orange cocoon that encompassed his body. His clothes were even the same as the last time Megan saw him, which was two months ago precisely. Tattered and threadbare from battling hard to prevent one of Narcissa's rising plans. His wounds even still remained.

His hair hung limp from the water he was in. It was going to be useless for a while.

Megan gave no note to the fact that her lungs were starting to burn. She did not hesitate to reach a hand out and push it through the gelanituous substance he was contained in to grab his own cold one.

His hand was cold. It was alarming.

Megan watched as his sun-yellow eyes slowly opened, and nearly shivered when his lips parted a bit to show his spotlessly white teeth.

His weak neck turned towards her to give her a nearly inscrutable look of thanks.

Despite the way Megan's heart was slowly melting, She recovered all her strength to yank his helpless body out of his cocoon, which proved to be difficult because of her trasforming state. She needed air. She needed her gills back for just a few more minutes. She needed her strength.

Aidan came free amid the desperate flapping of her useless and torn-up wings. The cocoon popped in a burst of light, the boy trailing out of it, still immobile.

Megan swam for the surface, needing air this instant before she passed out, and before shefully reverted back to her full, original body. She had not kept her clothes on; the changing would not allow it.

She paddled and paddled, dragging the weakly responding Aidan behind her, his shredded trench coat trailing out in the water behind him.

Twenty more feet.

Her nose took in a generous gulp of water that sloshed around in her lungs.

And she passed out.

* * *

><p>Everyone except for Megamind rushed over to the more desolate areas of the water where Megan had been heading before, insisting that she rescue Aidan alone, but that had turned out to be one of her faulty plans that popped up on occasion. Her brain had been in a muddle, surely, with the prospect of finally being abble to have this one chance to stop Narcissa once and for all. Everyone gets nervous sometimes. Even the most seasoned and daring leaders of a whole pack, who are not supposed to fear anything get nervous once in a while. The hard part is learning to control the anxiety.<p>

And no one knew whether Megan had or hadn't.

Kaitoia and the three other girls raced as fast as they could to where the knew Megan was trying and trying to complete her task.

And she had completed it. She just didn't make it to the surface in time.

"No", Kaitoia breathed. The mermaids were there. They swarmed around Megan and a weak Aidan, finding their easy prey, wanting to eat it and not let it go like their last prey had gotten away.

Only this time instead of only five mermaids, there were dozens. Dozens of the beautiful, dangerous creatures, giggling at the very sight of the two little people who were so frail, they couldn't even swim. The red-haired one had passed out since she had no more gills. The boy didn't look up to doing anything more than wiggling his fingers.

It was time to feast.

Eboni was the first one to think. Even though what burdened her was looming over her head ominously, she would do it and set things right. She would stay in the closet for a little while longer, but right now she knew the exact desperate protocol the situation called for.

She raised her left forearm to her mouth and dug her fangs deeply into her own pale skin, a flurry of scarlet blood curling up in its wake. The girls all watched with wide eyes. That had to hurt.

If vampires bit themselves, oh god, it does hurt. It hurts more than a dozen bee stings in the exact same spot over and over, but Eboni had dealt with pain worse than that for longer than she remembered, so she gritted her teeth and sank her fangs deeper in until she felt the grinding of her sharp incisors on her bone.

That was a stopping point. She yanked her teeth out of the wound, Annabelle watching horrified at what she had just done.

"Eboni!" she cried as the mermaid's heads all snapped up and paused dangerously for a second. "Celts hate blood and look what you just… I mean…" she was apparently at a total loss for words, but trying to grasp for them desperately to express her petrification as the mermaids transformed from their beautiful maiden disguises to ugly, gnarled faces with slimy black tongues hanging out and writhing from a mouth with hacksaw teeth.

Kaitoia took in a deep, angry breath. "Eboni…"

The vampire rapidly took off, but her last words before the mermaids followed with hungry intentions were, "they'll follow th' source of th' blood, not you guys! Wish me luck!"

And with that, all but two mermaids lunged for Eboni, streamlined bodies scrambling for the delicious piece of meat that had just spiked exactly downwards and was spiraling for the sea floor.

And the remaining couple continued to stare down the remaining three girls, torn between their prey they were guarding and the ones getting in the way of it.

"Well!" Kaitoia sighed. "They're not stupid, as I said before! Prey won't get away from them now even if a blood drive explodes down here."

The silence between the enemies hung solid in the water, but Annabelle, Roxanne and Kaitoia all knew that they couldn't hold back for long, or Megan would drown for sure. The grim-faced mermaids hissed lowly, their neon eyes warning and murderous.

When would they attack now?

He couldn't move. His muscles were still locked in place, save for the tips of his butter-yellow fingers, which were twitching in vain and trying to create a spark even in the water that surrounded him. It was his biggest enemy in this. It was the only thing that could counter his near limitless power that destroyed and created and healed and made anew. Sometimes the only thing people saw in him was a destructive, immature little thirteen-year old Infernoi, and that had angered him and proven all the points. He had never been given opportunities until he had become part of a rebellion.

His powers were needed. His powers were useful. He was almost like the sub-leader of the Rebels, being only a little bit lower than Megan, who was smart, brave, cunning, and… there were too many words to describe her, some of which Aidan didn't even know.

And plus, he was immature no longer. He was a ripened little golden pear like most of the Infernoi at his age.

The Ripening age. It was a major landmark in any Infernoi's life. It was when the Ripened child was able to look beyond the patina that covered certain things; was able to understand everything a little bit better, and be much more mature about it. They found a way through almost everything, and would most likely never shed a tear in their life again, knowing that crying solved nothing. They were able to figure out and cope with complex feelings.

But for some reason Aidan had never figured Megan out.

Megan, whom was drifting lower and lower to the sea floor, looking quite dead, except Aidan's brain didn't want her to be dead. She didn't just… die. Especiallt not by drowning.

His sunflower yellow eyes opened a bit more as he regained enough strength to move his head and see Kaitoia, Annabelle, and… a woman with octopus legs facing two wild-eyes mermaids and looking ready to strike. They had to do it quick before megan officially drowned, and the mermaids were getting equally antsy, since they wanted to tear apart the prey they had caught instead of it dying and going to waste.

Dying.

Well, no, Aidan could not accept that. Not ever.

He had a plan the didn't require fire… just the heat from it.

As his fingertips came to life with warmth, the feeling spread through his body and his muscles unlocked. He would help out the Rebels if it killed him.

* * *

><p>Eboni's wound still bled, and that meant the thirsty maiden-monsters were still on the chase, hungry for that scarlet fluid. They were exactly like sharks in so many ways, and their skills with seducing males made them all the more dangerous. Those were where the stories of ships disappearing at sea came from, since back then there were only men sailing on the boats, and than had been the motherload for the mermaids, so they got greedy and consumed the whole ship at once. That's how powerful they were.<p>

Eboni worried little about this. She was agile, and wouldn't get her. If she raced to the surface and kept them occupied enough by drawing new blood every now and then, she'd have the Rebels get away scot-free of any serious injuries or even deaths caused by these gorgeous carnivores. If they caught up to the vampire, unless they were immune to tigerfish poison, they'd never stop her from righting… certain things that needed correction in her sordid life.

It was a major problem that had all been caused by luring and temptation. She had choseen the wrong side to begin with. An evil side she was not keen on following anymore, since she had been absolutely loyal to rebellions at first, and then somehow her fate had gotten twisted and turned and wrung out unil Narcissa's quite superior persuasive skills had her under the vice of a spell that condemned her to a shameful death.

A stake through her cold, cold heart.

She was not a Celt vampire, as se had lied about to everyone. Celts hated the taste of blood. Victorians, on the other hand, craved it as much as the mermaids, Eboni had touched nothing but her own blood for years now, and it was slowly driving her mad with hunger for that red liquid she so adored, that she had to restrain herself from sinking her two beautiful fangs into any neck. Especially an oh-so-perfect blue neck she had seen back at Andromeda's just for that mere instant, so smooth like a sapphire matte pearl, she almost lunged for poor Megamind out of starvation and eaten his entire neck whole. The horrible prospects were not canny of course, but no one was reading her thoughts, so she couldn't help but consider to herself while she swam for her life.

The blood that had been gushing from her arm was lessening, so she sunk her fangs into the pale skin of her forearm, leaving two more deep pinpricks along with the other four, making six in all. The pretty, tempting blood streamed out from her body and spiraled away behind her for the mermaids like dancing party garlands in the turquoise water that made her predators even more savage with hunger for live prey.

She swam on, bobbing and weaving expertly through rock spires and coral beds, but the mermaids knew every inch of this vast sea, and were only irritated by obstacles. Eboni still had to keep them occupied, since she heard the sounds of an attack between some Rebels and sea maidens with her superior hearing abilities, and she didn't want a whole pod of mermaids interfering with a only very light fight with two of the already danger-loaded monsters.

Her black heart instantly dropped all the way to her gradually vanishing tigerfish fins when she found that breathing was becoming erratic through her fusing gills.

* * *

><p>He could move. He couldn't breathe but he could move, and that meant he could cause a distraction between the two mermaids now battling his weakening allies that didn't belong below the water. He had a genius plan.<p>

Aidan kicked his feet so he drifted up, but tried not to waste any energy by exertion. He'd tire himself a lot more from what he was about to do. He swam carefully until he was sure he'd hit the mermaids and not his friends, and then he got ready.

He pressed his fingers into his palms and rubbed them together harshly. He started to feel the welcoming, familiar burn he so loved to feel on his skin, and he knew at once that he was going to do this, and he would do it right. Stupid old mermaids.

A sratch and a bitemark on Kaitoia's abdomen. The spheres of energy on Aidan's hands expanded, partially fueled by indignance. To make them swell even more, he though of all the people who had doubted him in life. All who looked down upon him. All who taunted him and put him down because he was a little runt not capable of maturity or vast, feral power with flames.

It made him angry, but he controlled some of it, since anger made his abilities spiral out of control and go completely insane if he was furious. He was encased in a shell of raw esscence now, his hair flying like wisps of wildfire that danced and twirled freely and delicately like the fragile, precise magic he was conjuring up at the moment. No fire, but warmth snatched from his body and channeled out of him, controlled by the very veins pumping underneath his butter skin, flowing like rivers of crimson that fueled him and kept him alive.

Even the mermaids stopped to watch, bloodied mouths agape in shock at the incredible abilities of their once-been prey, retaliating against them and fighting for his friends, plus Megan who was knocking on death's watery door, starting to step past the very threshhold of its dark, waiting arms.

Megan.

The last thought that had crept into him forcefully, causing him to ready himself immediately, outstretching his shuddering arms to the stunned mermaids, who were hypnotized by the glow that surrounded this boy.

Everyone was immobile until Aidan signaled to the three girls to take cover, and they quickly spiraled down deeper while the mermaids remaned, though they tried to chase after the Rebels.

Aidan focused.

Then he exploded.

* * *

><p>Eboni raced around, beginning to feel on the fringe of fatigue, her worst enemy. The experience was not at all bettered due to the fact that she was reverting back to herself, and now that her gills were nearly all gone, she felt like she was having an asthma attack and would drown right on the spot.<p>

She almost stopped dead in her swimming when she saw and heard an explosion of light and heat relatively nearby that could only come from one recently freed person.

"Finally", she said with a smirk, and jerked sharply upwards for the surface, where sweet air, but a sickening scene awaited.

* * *

><p><strong>BACK TO THE HORRIBLE PRESENT…<strong>

It was all so strange before the fact that it was petrifying set into his muddled mind. For flashes of an instant before he registered the unbelievable sight staring him down, he realized his head felt heavy with something that was not water in his… now nonexistent hair.

He glimpsed snatches of the familiar azure skin, so comforting and so normal to him to have returned to his lithe, fit alien frame, he nearly fell back on the cushiony sand with joy if it were not for the fact that his throat was about to be slit.

By the materialized Addiku.

Megamind's returned body was rigid, blood trickling from his lips caused by his suffering lungs still purging unwelcomed water. When the Addiku removed the knife from under his chin, he could feel the outline of red it had left on his skin around the edges pressed into his flesh, and that was whne panic made him even more rigid than before.

Megamind looked into the Addiku's bloodshot eyes that were the exact sam shade as his own. He had his face, too.

It had been maimed. Jagged stitches sewed his cheeks together from each corner of his mouth to his ears, making his grin seem to go wider. The teeth were even sharper than that of a mermaid, and lolling out from between a few was a long, wormlike tongue the color of a plum, and at the tip of it dripped yellow substance that sizzled the sand into bits of glass when it dripped, long and gooey. Poison.

He wore no shirt, which exposed his muscular chest that had one stitched scar on each pack, and on his left arm were two scars in the shapes of parentheses linked together; top tip of one barely grazing the botton tip of the other.

Endless knifes and weapons were strapped to him, his tiny dagger being the least dangerous.

The Addiku kept staring at a frozen and shivering Megamind. His tongue flicked and then slithered sloppily back into his mouth.

"I'm free", he said in a voice more like Shadow Megamind's. The Addiku grinned malovently, the stitches that stretched beyond his lips making him look like one of Andromeda's voodoo dolls. His lethal teeth clacked together, and he reached out to touch Megamind's only scar, the one on his chest. The Addiku possessed the same one, but on his other breast there was another jagged scar that interuppted the irony.

Megamind regained use of his muscles and moved backwards hastily, trying to cover himself at the same time.

"How could you have… I ate… what…"

His voice was raspy and weak from the water that had clogged his lungs, yet his superior brain couldn't form any coherent words, much less sentences. The Adddiku was horrifying with some of the broken stitches in his scars, and the redness that swelled around some. His grin was absolutely insane.

"Ah, confused are you not?" he chuckled darkly. "I might've been too, if I were you. Do you know who I am?"

Megamind didn't know who he had been for the past week. Persolnalities had been meshing together inside him for far too long, and it all put him on the precipice of madness.

But this was a fully materialized Addiku. He looked more monster built around a human than anything else, and his eyes spoke murder any time you looked into them.

"I am hellfire, Megamind. Your complete demon opposite, and guess what? I kill like a madman and there is no stopping me."

His fingers tipped with white plated claws clacked together as he spoke, and Megamind fumbled for some reeds near the shore of the sea to cover himself.

"The berry was supposed to get rid of you", Megamind stated darkly. It was what Megan had said it would do. She couldn't have been mistaken! She wouldn't! What had gone wrong?

The Addiku laughed, a menacing, cold heave that couldnever ome from any human throat. "Blueberry. Narcissa changed the capability of the fruit since she knew Megan would find the real thing in a second. The berry freed me from the cramped prison that was your mind, and now I do her bidding." He pulled out a jagged machete from the strap on his back and traced his finger along the edge, quite purposely leaving a red stripe on the pad of his index finger.

"The purpose I have is to keep order to the Rebels and keep them from branching out to any more allies out there. You have all progressed far enough, and if you take one more step out of line, I will hunt you down and put you on the very edge of death."

With that, he swung the machete at Megamind's skull, making a loud whizzing sound as it sliced through the air. The blue man felt the tip graze his skin just barely making a purple line in his flesh, the cut so close he nearly bled.

The Addiku suddenly seemed to stare at him, and Megamind's only wish was to be able to get up and flee for his life.

"Now, don't tempt me with that obscenely large head of yours", he tutted, pupils shrinking and blood vessels evident in his eyeballs. "I'm sure the meat inside must be so… delicious… and plentiful… and full of blood.."

This Addiku was a cannibal. The thought occurred Megamind instantaneously, and so quickly he almost didn't believe it since such realizations came slower with the human brain he had had for what seemed like so long. He was lethal.

They both heard a tremendous splash in the middle of the sea, and soon Megamnid was soaked again with gallons upon gallons of water.

Aidan's explosion. They hadn't been aware of it at all.

The blast knocked the Addiku over and he hissed in annoyance as he saw all the figures rise out of the stormy waters.

Annabelle rose up into the air, flying. Megamind didn't know she could fly. She was followed by Eboni, who possessed new clothes and was rid of her tigerfish foliage, and next was Aidan, his hair aflame and in his arms was a limp Megan with only a white cloth covering her for now.

Roxanne and Kaitoia were bracing themselves on each other in the choppy water.

Annabelle's violet eyes went wide.

"You!" she pointed to the Addiku that had been threatening Megamind, who turned to look at her, provoked. Briefly, the princess noticed Megamind's lack of clothing all over and conjured up a cloth for him since it was the only thing she had time for. He took it and tied it in a knot around his lithe waist.

"Yes, me!" the Addiku howled, anything but sane. "I am Johnny Blue!"

Suddenly there came a high-pitched squealing as Eckere finally took action and barreled for Johnny. The shock knocked him off his feet again, and then the two were in a fistfight.

"Oh my god, Eckere!" Eboni shouted in disgust at the robot's confidence to something as dangerous as an Addiku. Eckere took a few blows to Johnny's face before she jumped into the air and stayed there, nearly getting decapitated by a knife. She tried.

"Total morons!" the killer gloated.

Suddenly, Megamind fet something heavy in his arms and a flash of heat. He looked down and saw Megan, dripping in water and still unconscious.

Aidan floated before him, frantically pointing in the direction of the thick woods beyond, and Megamind took it as a hint to go and carry Megan out somewhere safe. Megamind nodded bravely admid the mortal shock he felt, and did his best to force his weak muscles to run, knowing that Johnny would try to stop him after something whizzed by his ear and nearly cut it off.

Megamind heard Aidan speak for the first time, even from the yards away he was.

"Now, what did you say about us stepping outta line?"

And then war.

* * *

><p>Slim blue feet padded along the dirt ground, getting stabbed in all sorts of places by foreign things. Megamind carried a still unconscious Megan in his arms, recalling the cottage not too far away in Narcissa's vast, decomposing garden. Greenish-grey clouds swirled overhead, seeming to foreshadow doomsday at any given second, and Megamind knew it was quite true, having endured all the tauntings from that horrible Jhonny in his own mind while he was trapped in the avatar. He had menaced him with reminders of Narcissa's great, cruel power that would soon encumber the entire Earth for her to rule it and repopulate it with her own minions and monsters. He had gloated that she might even let him rule with her in place of Andromeda, since that Addkiu's killing skills were unmatched. He was fantasized endlessly about how to enslave the humans and then cook them a hundred different ways to eat heartily; each and every one that inhabited the planet. Narcissa would let her mermaids roam free in the oceans. She'd make Earth a living hell.<p>

The prospects kept keeping Megamind's mind in a dark fog, but finally he was able to clear his head now that he was free of it. The Addiku was not messing with his train of thought, and even through the shock of being purged right out of the avatar, he still considered his current situation.

He was an alien again. His slim, wiry build and heavenly blue skin were back, and so were his genius brains, which was quite a huge relief. His love for Roxanne was back to its normal strength, but with all the humanity he'd been through, he was momentarily surprised at how deeply he missed her and longed for her return into his arms, even though there was some bad tension between them, since the Addiku had messed with the element of trust in their relationship. It was weakened, sure, but not irriplaceable. Megamind wanted to be with her one more time in case, just in case, one or both of them died during this horrid ordeal. He partly wished he had no place in this, and could just board the plane back home to Michgan, but no, he would never do that. When Earth depended almost half on him, he couldn't let the weight of the task crush his skinny little shoulders. He couldn't and wouldn't cower before any villain, heedless of their power.

Megamind would not stop running no matter how his lungs ached and begged for mercy from their stress, since Megan was in danger of dying at any minute. The only thing that consoled him as he carried her was the fact that she was twitching a bit in some places, which signified she was still alive. Her shredded-up wings still hung wet and heavy from the water.

Somehow through it all, Megamind managed to keep the Staff safely in his hands, and his holster scratchy against the skin of his waist, underneath the white cloth draped over him. He would need everything that was in the holster for what he was about to go through. Probably even that naiad chopstick he had stolen from what seemed like ages ago now. He just had a weird feeling he would need it.

The rose, definitely. Indefinitely. It was going to be in the possesion of Roxanne whether he liked it or not, whether either of them survived or not. It was magic. It was a symbol of love, even if it remained unmatched to what he felt for her inside. It was touching and sweet and from his heart,a dn he wanted her back beyond words.

Megamind's ankles began to tire, and his feet were starting to leave little footprints of blood on the cracked earth the more he treaded over harsh undergrowth or a mound of dry, dead twigs. He had dealt with this type of pain before. Gritting his teeth, he struggled through it, forearms on fire from the weight of the precious body he held, and energy down to nearly zero. The path began to look more familiar after another long while, and immediately he began to set out for the shortest route to the only souce of shelter he knew was out here. He would take Megan up into a bedroom, and there would probably be a need for CPR then, but he would do it. The water trickling from the corners of her plump mouth were starting to tinge with pink.

He reached an expanse in the rotting garden, which was quite a transition from thick woods to open area that used to be alive with color and cloying fragrance. Just yards away stood the cottage, unperturbed on the outside and coated in curly brown ivy.

Megamind mustered up even more of his strength and pleaded with his body to let him go on to get Megan to safety. A new source of motivation bubbled up far away; he could hear war cries and screams he distinguised to their proper owners, and the most evident, callous one was Jhonny's.

"CHHHHILD'S PLAY!" Megamind heard him whine in a nightmarish voice, as if he had been severly distorted on a twisted computer program. He grimaced to himself, vaguely wondering what in the world was going on until he felt the wet little budle in his arms again and bolted for the cottage door, going through it and up the stairs with ease.

He set Megan down carefully on a bed in a room that was not the same as the one he had inhabited days ago, where the Addiku had wormed inside of him somewhere via the vile potion he had been induced to drink by Andromeda. She would surely pay for that.

Megan coughed weakly, opened her sapphire eyes for a second, and fell back unconscious before Megamind quickly fingered her forehead just in case, and then climbed on the bed beside her to press his hands to her breastbone and push.

She hacked violently, a jet of bloody water shooting from her mouth and staining the sheets. Megamind pounded again, receiving the same result until she coughed up more liquid and then stayed awake, giving a moan of agony.

Stillness.

"Are you okay?" Megamind asked her at last.

Megan raised her head, neck muscled shuddering.

"Ah, there's… bluebirds…everywhere…"

She fell back unconscious. Megamind's brow furrowed. She must've been hurt badly. After a bit of hassling with her limp body, he tucked her under the slightly bloody sheets, made sure she was warm, and then fully observed her eerie, peaceful face.

Her damp hair still looked aflame around her pale flesh, but not as truly aflame as Aidan's had been. Megamind had only glimpsed the boy for a second, his face hardened with determintaion and generating raw, ravenous power from his body like he had never seen. It was amazing, actually. The fire looked different. It didn't exactly work like Earthly fire, and Megamind was not surprised whatsoever, since he was another creature of whimsy in this fantastic world he had fallen head over heels into with true destiny written on his big blue forehead. Megamind slumped his skinny body on the bed next to Megan and sighed, rubbing his calves together. The Staff gave a consoling little pulse in his hands. It was to be his until… whenever he was not a mage anymore. He still couldn't quite place what had caused him to possess powers, and him of all people. But an anterior question was, how did his sister come to be a mage in the first place?

Maybe it was an ill-fated accident she survived, and then came out genetically mutated somehow in the threads of her extraterrestrial DNA with foreign substance that would remain forever unexplained with logical scientists who would never figure it out by a longshot. Maybe She was just born like that, through something… Megamind had no idea. Even with a genius brain that could solve anything put in front of him, he would never fully understand magic. No one really could, anyway, especially if they had not been in a magical community to begin with.

But through twists and turns, Narcissa had kidnapped him and Roxanne and plopped them both right in the midst of it, hoping to make some new slaves out of them until they became outlaws right alongside the audacious rebellious society, and out of all the three separate groups he could have ended up in, he ended up with the head of everyone, the Rebels. And if he had been placed with the Retaliation or the Dissent, he would never have felt complete since none of them did what the Rebels did, and non of them contained a lost family memebr that had appeard before him so suddenly, he was still in shock. Megamind could not have coped with splitting up and gathering benelovent cretures that still stood unaffected and temporarily hopeless by the threats of Narcissa. He could not have been slinking around the entire mansion and what was underneath it looking for the slightest little fluctuation in Narcissa's careful plot and attack it.

No. The Rebels were the highest at the chain of command, attacking at the source whilst dealing with the most drama, betrayal and blood he had ever experienced, and then he was worried he would not fully recover if he saw anything worse, which he was completely expecting. Things from here just never failed to get worse when you thought the end was only the beginning.

All the Rebels had been recovered from their incarcerations and together were quite invulnerable to most anything. As long as Megamind stood loyal and by their side, they'd face Narcissa and the world head-on, teamed up with all the other mutineers with a sole intention to preserve the world and its every remaining being, a gift from whoever lived above them, lives too precious and divine to simply destroy and think it's the most ludicrous thing you ever saw. Humans being wiped out with a flick of a finger. Magical worlds and human worlds, ignorant as most of them were, needed each other to harmonize and live in peace. When human worlds were abustle and running smoothly, the links between realms didn't clash or break or disappear, and creatures from beyond could go about their buisiness unbothered and invisible to some disbelieveing eyes.

As Megamind went deeper and deeper into his thoughts about what he had truly gotten into, he felt intimidated, lonely, proud and determined at the same time. Intimidated by the full force of what was coming next, which still remained inconcievable even with his large stretch of imagination that had given him so much insight to everything through his life. He was lonely for Roxanne, his only girlfriend whom he would love to no end, and would cherish forever since they had a deep connection with each other. They were the first intergalactic couple ever created, ad Megamind wanted to spend his life with her dearly.

He was proud of himself, Roxanne, and everyone for having the gall to even consider rising up to the source of all the black magic and pure evil happening around them. Those two snide women who showed absolutely no clemency to any sentient being that walked the Earth, and they sauntered on past them kicking dirt in their faces at ther inferiority.

He was determined to make Narcissa and Andromeda both fail to take over the world, and if it was necessary, he'd kill them for the sake of everyone. That is, if they could be killed. It was the only problem lingering at the back of his thoughts.

It would be the first real war he had ever been in the middle of, and added to the encumberment of that on his shoulders, he was a target for Narcissa since he had inherited the magical powers from the Staff, and he had a large role to play. The Rebels weren't getting anywhere without a true mage with power in plenty and courage and loyalty to no end.

Megamind wrapped the white cloth tighter around himself and glanced out the window, feeling an intense urge to go and help everyone with driving Johnny off, since he looked pretty powerful, and a killing machine. Megamind shuddered a bit at the rememberance of his haunting face with the scars on both corners of his mouth that made him look like a living voodoo doll. And his pupils were unnaturally small, making him look about to cause bloody murder at any given moment.

It was almost painful to look at his straight on, since he posessed Megamind's face. It was like looking into a funhouse mirror so distorted, it turned you into a whole different demonlike being.

The blue alien slitted his eyes and tried to see if any true commetion was going on out in the woods, but it was difficult to pinpoint where exactly he had been. The only thing he saw beyond the vast, dead trees was an expanse of choppy water like an ocean. Narcissa's little sea was actually quite large.

His sight shifted downwards, and then to the little body next to him. Megan was breathing, but it was in a raggedy sort of pattern. Faint pink lines traced the edges of her lips, her signs of blood not as obvious as Megamind's, who had a jagged, thin, red stream trailing down the side of his goatee.

Megan had been the one who had introduced him into this tumult. He appreciated her for that. Without him, the Earth would've crumbled with no mage to help out the Rebels, and then he would have never even met his sister, which would just be sad.

The room began to earn an eerie esscence of silence as the minutes ticked by with Megan asleep as ever, and Megamind nervous as ever. And cold. The white cloth was the only thing he had on, and it was as thin as the sheets on the bed. He thought about trying to scooch into the bed next to her for warmth, but the piece of furniture was too small for two people. He hitched his knees up on the bed, sat on his calves, and wrapped as much of the cloth as he could gather around his lanky alien body.

Now the silence grew to a suspicious kind of feeling. Megamind had a way of identifying what certain silences meant, having lived with all these thives in jail who had attempted to rob banks, and were experts at knowing every sound they heard while doing it, even if the sound was a simple rustle of paper. Plus Megamind had his enhanced hearing back, which almost made his ears hurt with the suddenness of it.

The flushed pink shell strained to ear more, but all he heard was the nothingness stretching out around him. He still knew that this kind of silence mean something.

After all, the floorboards on the first floor were creaking.

* * *

><p>Kaitoia leapt into the bushes, kicking at the mangled and bloody Addiku until he finally ran away, surrendering for now. Nobody threatened her brother. Nobody held a knife under his chin and considered eating his brains. He was a primitive little piece of artificial life that originated from a potion, no less, not even a real person. Not a person at all. Some kind of twisted otherself fashioned from parts of Megamind and materialized into a killer who obeyed Narcissa. He was nothing.<p>

Kaitoia gave Jhonny a firm reminder of that when she started beating him head-to-head, dodging every swing of his deadly knifes that whistled through the air trying to hurt her while she countered with her trusty nunchaku she kept by her side at all times. Even thought she had been worn to her bone marrow from the mermaids and the near drowning, she had gotten a burst of energy that had allowed her the bravery and anger to start fighting Jhonny at the source, even tough he had endless weapons strapped to his every body part and razor-sharp claws that tipped his gloves and boots alike. Kaitoia had muscle and agility and indignation. From all her years of wounds and beatings, she paid little heed to the new scars she had now and fresh blood shed from them. She had been through worse.

But she never knew just how protective she was of her newly found brother that it would drive her to get up close and personal with such a dangerous monster. He had tried to lick her and coat her in poison, but that ugly long tongue just wasn't long enough. Kaitoia had not been afraid. She'd seen worse, much more gory and disturbing.

Jhonny was taken care of for now. He would return soon, and he would return hungry for flesh.

The Rebels who had been floating up over the sea and fighting off the cannibalistic Addiku drifted down, exhausted and soaking wet except for Aidan, who followed along silently. Eckere came out from hiding and trailed along as well, and behind her Annabelle, Eboni, and Roxanne caught up. Most had been dressed in new clothes, since the leaves they had eaten beforehand had left them with a lack of clothing.

Roxanne climbed out of the water where she had done nothing whatsoever, which frustrated her, since she had barely been doing anything through this whole ordeal. The impression it had burned into Katoia was that the alien saw her as a bit of a third wheel to the Rebels, but Roxanne wanted so badly to prove her wrong as soon as the action got really heated up and complicated. She could fight even if she lacked in the magic department. She was the first human in the rebellious society and in Narcissa's collection at all, so it had been told.

Roxanne had not been affected much by water getting into her lungs, since she had broken the surface in time, the horrible feeling of drowning tipping her off immediately. She was bruised though, and cold, but she gritted her teeth and continued on through it, knowing that she could never deter such an important group that aided in world rescuing just because she was a little sore here or there. She would survive it.

"I sent the blue alien to the cottage", Aidan informed Kaitoia casually. "So that was your brother?"

"Yes", Kaitoia purred, still satisfied with how she had driven Jhonny off so pathetically. "Otherwise why would I have lashed out so badly at that stupid little Addiku?" she gave him a coy grin, walking on through the forest.

"I'd really hate to be him", Aidan smiled, a ribbon of fire curling up from his fingertip and disappearing into the sky. He looked down at himself, and suddenly said, "Annabelle, clothes please."

His rags were at once changed into something like he had worn before. His trusty midnight black trench coat, black slacks, combat boots, and one magenta shirt with a logo on it. It was the touching parantheses, one top end barely grazing the bottom end of the other. Aidan had forgotten what exactly it meant, but it did mean something. If only he did know.

They were headed for the cottage, since twilight was well on its way here and soon it would be black, black night. No light from the surrounding, ignorant city around them could penetrate into the dead garden this deeply. Only creatures with night vision even had a chance of surviving traveling around at night.

Plus, night meant the werewolves. Night meant any number of Narcissa's captives would come out of hiding and lurk around, most likely wanting blood. Banshees might even come out and mourn their imprisonment, since Kaitoia had heard them do their musical, heartbreaking whine many times before, though she had never seen one of the creatures.

Kaitoia suddenly remembered something. It was killer important, in fact, and she widened her ruby eyes in realization as she reached down into her utility belt that still held around her waist and dug out her communicator issued by Eckere, opened it and pressed a few buttons, then held it to her lavender ear.

"You said you found her. You'll be waiting at the cottage too?" she said immediately, licking her lips and yearning for an answer.

The person on the other line answered through obvious exertion, "Yes! I have her in my arms… ngh… you also said I would meet your brother there, right?"

Kaitoia noddedforgetting he couldn't see her, but then affirmed. "Okay. I hope he won't be too flustered at me."

Kaitoia chuckled. "With the shock of what he's been through this past week, I don't think he'll be surprised. Maybe suspicious, but knowing what exactly you are, he'll be fascinated."

He laughed amid his panting. "Okay. See you later." Then he hung up.

Kaitoia picked up the pace. She wanted to get to the guest house as soon as possible.

* * *

><p>The creaking of the floorboards turned into heavy footsteps that were running everywhere, and Megamind tensed at once. For a minute, his stomach turned to stone, thinking Jhonny had come for him, but he thought for a moment, remembering that his boots had sharp, clawed toes. These running footsteps sounded solid and not like anything was clacking around, so maybe it was a Rebel returned to the cottage.<p>

But if so, why only one? And how so quickly?

Megamind tightened the cloth around his body and stood up, making the pine needles and undergrowth pierce even more into the skin of his poor feet. Droplets of blood blossomed, but he barely noticed.

The person in the house seemed to be looking for something. Probably him. Megaming heard the sound of doors opening and closing, and running around, panting. Judging by the occasional grunt and groan, it was a male.

When Megamind felt his door get pushed open, he took action and shoved it back closed.

"Hey!" the other voice grunted. He was strong, Megamind realized. Soon the door had made him stagger across the floor into the bed, and Megamind, fearing the worst looked up.

So much purple. So much _cat._

All he could do was gape. He was instantly taken back to when his sister had made her appearance so suddenly before him, and how his stomach clenched and his mind spun around his own head.

Except this time it was weirder. So much weirder and…

Absolutely intriguing.

"I'm hallucinating, aren't I?" he asked himself mindlessly. He did tend to see stars explode into globules of molten gold if he got intoxicated somehow, and this must have been one of those annoying spells. He wasn't talking to anything. No one was there at all. It was all too bizarre.

"I'd think that, too, if I saw another member of what looked like a lost race", the alien said in his teenager-like voice. Megamind slapped his own head, and the finally realized that this was no hallucination, and this was just like the time his sister cam out of the broom closet.

Except this one was much more interesting.

The alien made his way a little closer to Megamind, and then set the bundle in his arms down on the bed where Megan laid, momentarily pausing to examine her a bit. Well, for one, his skin was a lovely shade of lilac purple as pure as Megamind's own sapphire silk. And it would never take anyone with half a brain to notice the obviously cattish tail that sprouted from the base of his spine and stuck out of his clothes, waving around languidly. His eyes were mismatched; one bright blue and one Megamind's shade of emerald, and both had cat pupils that were slitted at the moment. Six black freckles sprinkled the high cheekbones, and a stylized goatee stood out on his round chin, going perfectly with his upturned nose. Tiny, strange violet tatoos streaked each jaw, just barely there.

A cat hybrid. No question about it, but just… how?

He wore the classic utility belt and tunic similar to Kaitoia's normal outfit, but with more midnight black. And he was nicely muscled while staying slim as Megamind.

The blue genius blinked as he felt the alien lift him up to sit on the actual bed and they locked eyes disbelieveingly.

"You are… amazing", Megamind observed before he could stop himself.

"Yeah, people say that", the cat-alien admitted. "My name's Tigurr. T-I-G-U-double r. I'm a messenger between the societies for when the communicators are down." He stuck out a hand, and Megamind shook it hesitantly.

Tigurr scrutinized Megamind closely. This was the first other male he'd seen from his planet that actually looked like the rest of the people, unlike himself. He had been it a freak accident… or fluke of nature or something and had gotten merged with his would-be minion. He had mixed genes of a cat, though genotypes had remained the same so his inner workings did not differ. It was mostly his phenotypes that had been rearranged into feline properties, making him grow a tail and have mirrors in his eyes. Sometimes he felt self-conscious of his appearance, especially when his infused cat instincts caused him to humiliate himself. But some did come in handy, including his superior agility (the result of his muscled arms) and his ability in fistfighting, especially when he wore his gloves with retractable claws.

And he was particularly gifted in doctoring and medicine, and singing alike.

This was what caused him to slip his sleek gloves off and start tending to Megamind.

At first the blue alien was confused at why he was fingering he underneath of his pointed chin, but then remembered the impression of Jhonny's dagger in there. It hurt, but when Tigurr traced a finger around the fresh wound, the pain disappeared, and the red lines turned into his baby-smooth skin again.

"Is it okay if I just fix you up a little?" he asked. "I can't keep myself from healing injuries even if that sounds weird."

"B-be my guest", Megamind stammered, beginning to warm up already with only the lightest tracery of suspicion left floating around. He was damp, hurting and bleeding so, and what he wanted was to be cleaned up and his scratches all tended to. If he and the Rebels got at least a night's peace in the cottage, it would be enough for him just before the real thing started to heat up.

Tigurr examined and pinched lower, coming across the stitched scar on Megamind's chest, the same there asit ever would be. "I'm afraid I can't fix this if Narcissa caused it", he muttered ruefully. Megamind began to squirm if he examined lower, so Tigurr moved on to his legs where the most damage had been done. The limbs had been damaged in the process of the one long spine of a mermaid splitting apart again into appendages he posessed previously , and all this time Megamind had tried his best not to burst out in sobs at how much they hurt. The slightest touch made his winde and moan, but when Tigurr squeezed both hands around the top of his left knee, the jabbing agony peirced him just for an instant before it fell into lulling, beautiful relief that made Megamind have to bite his lip to keep from moaning in pleasure.

But oh, when his calf and his other thigh got the same treatment, he could barely hold back.

"Please do my calf!" he blurted out without thinking. "It hurts the most."

Tigurr gave a sympathetic grin and then squeezed Megamind's right lower leg, making him unable to hold back his groan of relief.

As Tigurr inspected even more closely, he took a look at the bottoms of one of Megamind's feet, sucking a breath in through his teeth at the sight.

One by one, he plucked out each pine needle that had splintered the skin, and removed the burrs that had gotten lodged into the flesh along with it. The small puncture wounds he healed back up instantly with a press of his thumb, and then he moved on to the next foot, Megamind getting used to the tiny jabs of pain and instead getting more and more curious about the budle in a burlap sack Tigurr had carried in the room several minutes ago.

Tentatively, Megamind reached out and poked the large lump inside the bag next, and to his disgust he found it was squishy like living flesh. His curiosity mounted. Whatever was in there, was it dead or unconscious?

He cautiously dragged the bag a bit closer to him, finding that its contents were a bit heavy. It had to be some sort of animal. Although the concept was a bit disturbing, Megamind took a quick peek inside the burlap.

Tufts of white fur, a bushy tail, and hair on the head as red as Kaitoia's eyes.

Megamind yelped, pushing the bundle with the strange cat inside it away, getting the attention of Tigurr who had finished up with Megamind's feet. He looked up and lunged for the sack, carefully drawing out the entire feline while a slightly horrified blue genius watched.

As he observed the cat, though, his brain racked around for memories until he found the information. The night that Kaitoia had discovered him…

It was Vixen, her minion.

Megamind opened his mouth, but Tigurr beat him to the punch. "Kaitoia told you about Vixie, didn't she?" he said, gathering the helpless, and probably just unconscious creature in the stong arms. "I found her, and then she got all overjoyed… do you know where she was?" Megamind merely shook his head as he further stared at the cat.

Well, let's just say some homless dryads really attacked me and countered the claws on my gloves with their own naturals claws. I have a gash on my shoulder, but it should heal by tomorrow since it's relatively shallow."

After he finished his small explanation, he suddenly whipped his hand hard on Megamind's back, urging the last of the water from his flooded and exhausted lungs.

"Thanks", he choked out.

Tigurr cocked his head. "You don't talk very much, do you?"

"No, no, I do it's just… Well, you'd think with everything that's already happened I'd already be used to these new discoveries about my heritage, but it's always a surprise. Kaitoia introduced herself to me a sudden as you did yourself."

"Sorry", Tigurr shrugged. "Not many things that don't catch you by surprise around here. Narcissa is always trying to shrink your guard, but you must always keep it up."

"Exactly", Megamind both stayed in silence while Tigurr placed Vixen back on the bed and began to pet her cat body in what seemed to be a relaxing way. He occasionally pressed into the soft flesh of her belly and felt her tiny heart pattering, a comforting signal that she still lived.

"Vixen'll need to stay overnight, I predict, and by morning she'll be fine", Tigurr announced. "Only where do I put here?"

"Next to Megan?" Megamind suggested, pointing to the ailing fairy in the bed still unconscious after her little hallucination of bluebirds.

"She does need the warmth, and Megan needs the care. She didn't tell you about me, did she?" Tigurr added.

"No", Megamind groaned at the fairy's forgetting again. If she forgot any more, they'd fail at their plan to overthrow Narcissa's careful plan of world conquest. How could she have left out another one of his own race? Maybe she thought he wasn't part of his race because of the rearranged cat genes that had been fused with him at infancy.

"Well, I do look pretty different than the rest of our people…"

"How did you get to be like this? I'm very curious about you right now", Megamind mused, getting a little more comfortable with Tigurr.

"Well, at least it's not very long, but my would-be minion got his or her DNA mixed up with mine, creating me, the purple hybrid guy. That happened almost right after I was born, but I forget how. The the black hole that consumed our planet came when I was about three days old, and then my parents sent me to Earth in a n escape pod in hopes of our race being able to repopulate with the people, and…"

Megamind's eyes flickered with a sure idea. "So that must have been why we're all on Earth in the first place. I had some doubts… but that must have been a good reason. Maybe our planet observed the human race… and we must have had close enough genomes to them to continue our race."

"Exactly what I thought", Tigurr conceded. "That is a consoling fact… I've heard about your girlfirend Roxanne. She's the first human ever to join this rebellion we run. Are you sure she's fit for it?"

Megamind stiffened a bit, but reminded himself that Tigurr and Roxanne had not encountered each other directly. "She survived Titan, and before the actual battle she went right up against him with nothing to pretect herself, so I respect her for her bravery. She's held out this long."

Tigurr's head cocked again. "Who's Titan?"

Megmind grinned. "Kaitoia didn't tell you?"

"She said you would be able to do the yarnspinning better than she ever would."

Megamind felt a small swell of pride at his sister's allowance, and breathed in deeply through his newly cleared and relived lungs. "This is the story that's long. I'll start from the beginning.

"I had a fairly stantard childhood…"

* * *

><p>Jhonny dragged his limp body back to where Narcissa had demanded they meet to discuss the condition the Rebels were in so she could take immediate action. Although he was leaving small trails of warm, thick liquid on the ground, he managed to crawl on his injured arms and breath out of his nearly collapsed lungs. So this is what it felt like to be living; to feel pain and anger and domination. Jhonny loved and hung on to every delicious second of it. They were the most intense feelings you could recieve as a sentient being, and he was addicted. Being a sadistic killer built from parts of his host, Megamind was euphoric. Blood was never so coppery and delicious. Meat and organs were fun to play with and make delicacies out of like a creative cannibal should, and he thought, this was life. This was dark, evil bliss, and he was never so glad to be a slave to an equally evil mistress who had a murder drive almost as much as his, the hunger for hot scarlet and need to see victims quiver and cry and bleed in submission. He understood. It was just about as creative as you could get imagining all the ways you could prepare different parts of your kill, and all the ways you could flavor blood to vitamin-rich perfection and how the victim would scream and crumple in the meantime. Oh, Jhonny sympathized with both his mistresses absolutely. Being evil was certainly worth time, and the best kind of evil feeling anyone could have was a sense of dominance and control, and a hunger for meat from a higher source of life. It tended to be more delicious and tender than that of a stupid little animal, like a bunny just hopping around, but if Jhonny's options were limited, he would make use of those pieces of roadkill. From the moment he had split apart from Megamind, he knew the tastes off all his innards and blood. He knew the taste of human meat, and fairy meat, and mermaid meat, the rarest you could find. He wanted to taste it all, feeling the fluid mixed with the poison on his tongue and drip through his goatee and down his body leaving trails of ruby in their wake.<p>

It was an exhilirating way of life.

He stood up on his muscled legs, the veins bulging out through his exertion, but he only relished in the heavenly pain, grinning madly. His tongue reached out between his razor teeth to test the air, sensing that Narcissa was close. He crunched into a creepier part of the forest, owls hooting and crickets chirping lazily until the voice of dangerous silk broke the night symphony.

"How much blood from how many bodies do you have on you at the moment?"

Jhonny's eyes narrowed pleasingly, and he grinned again, showing the horrifying teeth. "Most of it is my own. It's just _wonnnnderful_…"

He raised a forearm to his mouth and dredged his wormlike tongue across what was left of the fresh blood leaking from a broken stitch. Narcissa watched him with interest, smirking as he did so. He was her type of killer. He basked in any pain he felt, and it was just absolutely… fascinating. He had the courage to lap up his own blood.

She had suspected he would like living. And by these signs, he liked living very, very much, so much that he went absolutely insane yearning for real feelings and craving floods of adrenaline through his new veins.

She made sure he would not escape her by threatening to kill him outright and end his life he had earned so very well to just go back to being a spirit not capable of any feeling like these ones.

That would have been so devastating, the spirit might just fizzle away into nothing and cease to exist. Jhonny loved and cherished life in the twisted, gory ways Narcissa appreciated life. He loved it so much, and cherished other lives too, especially when they were quivering and whimpering under complete power. They cherished lives so much, they made use of what remained of the victim and ate it. They wore the victims. They used them as decorations. There were so many incredible, delicious choices to choose from, it was dizzying with bloody rapture at the mere thought.

"Now, you do know the most important Rebels are not to be killed just yet?" Narcissa purred.

"Oh, but harming them just a little is fine, is it not?" Jhonny countered, the sharp teeth never failing to show themselves behind the sheen of red on his lips. "And it's just so mean for you to deny me having that meaty stuff inside Megamind's skull. It's once in a lifetime, even though I'm immortal."

Narcissa raised a penciled eyebrow. "You've forgotten that there's one other big-headed freak you can have all to yourself if you want. The purple one who calls himself the messenger between the societies."

"Oh, the cat hybrid!" Jhonny exclaimed, pleased. "I'll have quite a bit of fun with him."

Narcissa nodded malovently. Jhonny would certainly do his job, and he would do it efficiently like an insane murderer should. Dominated, lost in the scrumptious agony that life brought him, and cannibalistic to no end.

Yes, he was an accomplice to be reckoned with.

* * *

><p>Tigurr leapt down from the tree he had taken shelter in, nearly biting his entire fingers off with mortal fear. He had to get back to the cottage as soon as possible, sorry he had snuck out just after sundown to spy on Narcissa and her new assistant.<p>

He used his catlike physique to scamper soundlessly back through the forest to his only source of shelter where everyone had settled down for the night in. He was Jhonny Blue's target. He had evaded assailants more times than he could count, and some had been several times the size of that mangled murderer, but this was different. He was on a craving rampage, and the worst part was that he loved life to disturbing extents. That could drive anyone to imminent insanity and raw, furious power if he was not kept under control, and he was just that. Narcissa had loosed a wild animal on the prowl for blood, and had granted him free access to Tigurr. It was the worst fate he could have right now.

Tigurr heard the crunching of brown, curled leaves, and his hearing picked up the terrifying sound of one of the two villains coming his way, and immediately he was on all fours and dashing his way back to shelter like a cheetah. He only used this tactic if he was desperate, and now he was scared out of his wits. It didn't help that the cat part of him was causing the panic to blossom into paranoia like it almost always did, and Tigurr was sick of it.

He needed to inform the Rebels, and he needed to keep his guard up to the stratoshpere. He trusted his heightened sense to do the job, and he trusted his fighting skills that were still a chance against attack.

But one little slip, and he'd be torn to a pulp, no questions asked. What brief information he had recovered about that ball of madness made him worry for his dear life, and for the condition of his allies.

The lean body tore through the thick forest until the cottage came into view, and then he fluently reverted back to upright jogging, now out of breath. He was going to stay in the cottage… and he was sleeping in a windowless room tonight.

* * *

><p>OMG! I creeped myself out whaen I wrote this chapter! XD I'm not entirely used to writing about insane, bloodthirsty mosnters like Jhonny! He stole Megamind's Earth name...<p>

How do you like Tigurr? Aidan? Shiriter, did you have a fanseizure right now? :D I bet the gory concepts were DELICIOUS for you XD Great, now I'm going to have to sleep in a windowless room too... Jhonny's coming for you...

CHAPTER 32 COMING SOON! HIGHLY ANTICIPATED! :DDD


	32. Chapter 32

HER IT IS! Here's something to relieve Shiriter from her frustration of her laptop not working. I DO NOT LIKE THIS CHAPPY! Even though I like the imminent fluff, I think it's kind short and not to the point with the whole, "apologizing" thing with Megs and Rox. I actually kinda confused myself with the promise thing they made... But, I guess a small little fluke just needs a small little apology and reassurance... But I still don't like it X[

Well! Jhonny Blue goes wack in this as well! And yes, to those of you that have been wondering, "Jhonny" is the correct spelling for his name. Not "Johnny." I just like freedom to misspell things... I mean, look at Tigurr! It's so people don't confues hims with Freakin' TIGER WOODS! XD but when I put it throught the audio speaking on Google Translate, it says his name like "Tigger!" XDD

Ok, I'll stop babbling and let you see my creative ruin. I promise for better quality on the next chapter...

* * *

><p>Chapter 32<p>

He had been washed up and given new clothes, stripping down to the simple pieces for the night. His injuries had been tended to expertly by that lifesaver Tigurr, and he was all right for tonight.

Except for this one big hole in his heart that had been there the entire time he had been trapped in the avatar that signified he dearly missed his Roxanne to no extent.

Annabelle had fed them dinner from some scraps she still had in her little extra-dimension, and just in case, everyone had already gathered what hey could from underwater, most of which only consisted of seaweed. But they ate, and they were all full by the end, givng Megamind's body a little relaxation.

But his heart was far from relaxed, beating at the speed of light thinking about how to face Roxanne if he wanted her back again. What would he say to her? How would she react? Would he be able to trust her again? There was a chance they'd end up fighting. Megamind just wanted to desperately to right things tonight, since this was a rare night of well-deserved rest for everyone before the dirty work started up, and then they'd truly be battling and running for their lives. Megamind would never have time to confront Roxanne then.

He pondered these options flying around in his magnificent, very cherished blue head while lying down in the very same bed in the very same roon he'd transformed in, stopping only to strip the layer of sheets off that still had the creepy blue stain on then from last time. Roxanne herself was still preparing for bed, and once again, there was no other room to sleep in, so they wound up sleeping in the same bed together again. It just never failed. Megamind needed to come up with something to avoid a mightily awkward night ahead.

He sunk into the thin pillow and pulled the white sheets tighter around his body, wearing just a cotton long-sleeved black shirt and cotton pants to go with them. The fabric felt good and almost sedating around his body; a total relief after what he'd been through. The hectic day had been stressful on him physically, and he still had an inextinguishable fear of Jhonny, whom was probably lurking around in the dead garden outside, attacking and eating any living thing he saw. Just an hour ago, Tigurr had returned from his rendenzvous that squeezed a bit of infromation out of the demonlike Addiku clone, bumbling on fearfully about how he had ben chosen as free game for Jhonny. That was a horrible fate, but Kaitoia had added in that she would give Jhonny a good, hard pummeling worse than her last one if he tried to even tear dead skin off of had filled them in on just how insane and bloodthirsty he really was, and everyone came to an agreement that the nuisance had to be killed if they were to move on. What and inconvenience! Everyone had complained about the would probably require a couple days or more inhabiting the cottage again and planning to kill the killer. It was going to graze impossibility.

Megamind's thoughts broke away to being more jumbled, alternating between worrying about the rebellion and thinking about Roxanne. They were both important topics, but he tried to stay on one track since he was too tired to even think much now.

And he ultimately chose Roxanne, since that was the exact person entering quietly through the door right now, and climbing into bed next to him.

He turned a bit away from her, breathing through pursed lips. He had forgotten just how fluttery and excited he got when she was around. She lit up the room. She was his soul mate, and like any of Megamind's kind that got involved, he knew she would be drawn back to him just as he was getting drawn back to her. Nearly nothing could keep two bonded people apart after they kissed and sealed the bond… mostly, but still strong enough to be compelling. For the bond to seal completely, it required love on a deeper, much deeper level. It required an intense feeling or realization to enter both partners by ways of relations or relevations of hidden feelings that could only be presented between the two, and no one else. Either way made both feel satisfied, head over heels enamored, and most of all, complete. It was all Megamind needed to reach the feeling. He had his sister and long-lost family member. He had another member of his race living on Earth, and through that knowledge he had figured out that his race could continue after all. He was a renowned hero with his biggest save of all time, and he had a mystery to unravel of Narcissa, since he yearned to know the reason behind her ruthlessness.

If he succeeded that far, and completely connected with Roxanne, he'd want nothing else in the world.

Once Roxanne settled down in the sheets wordlessly, Megamind tried his best to keep silent as well until he figured out what to say, but he felt hot. His face was a soft purple in the sapphire light coming from the crescent moon outisde, where the wolves howled at it. His once soft cotton wear was getting uncomfortable. He nervously curled into a fetal position under the sheets, getting more and more restless by the second.

Then he decided. Nothing would go unsaid tonight. He was going to sort everything out with Roxanne. He wanted her back because he was freefalling in love with her, and had been trapped in an avatar that had hidden the true him and kept him from her. If they were kept apart for this long, either was apt to go crazy.

Megamind straightened his legs again and slowly rolled back over only to lock eyes with his sweetheart at once, and in time, Roxanne had an arm draped languidly over him, hugging what she had been missing for so long, and instantly Megamind felt the awkward warmth in his cheeks spread to warmth that tingled under his skin; electrified it.

"I missed you", Roxanne whispered, sliding a finger up his chiseled jaw with the attractive stripe of inky fur under his lip. Megamind blushed that adorable, familiar blush and brushed her auburn hair behind her perfect ear.

"I missed you more."

Roxanne smiled softly. "You do know we still have tape to cut through after all this,right? I didn't like the idea of leaving you if you weren't returned to yourself."

Megamind nodded, remembering the night from a few days ago. "I was pretty hurt, but then again I was only half-taken over. If we trace this all backwards, this all leads to Andromeda, but I'm not going to pin everything on her just because."

"Hmm", Roxanne mused, glad that he didn't want to draw the card. "You know, if that thing had completely taken you over you would have just disappeared from the Earth outright."

"Yes, but there was something going on in the avatar's head the whole time… I don't even think you were talking to the real me most of the time except when the Italian voice changed."

Roxanne cocked an eyebrow. "Then who was I talking to? And who did I kiss?"

"You did kiss me once, but when I confronted you you kissed… the avatar. Just the avatar." Megamind conceded. "I'm confused by it all, too."

He paused for a second, one of the first times he stopped to actually consider how the Addiku worked in terms of taking over a whole body. He himself had just been stored in the avatar's head, trying to speak his thoughts from its mouth, but the Addiku stored in the head with him usually did the talking except for a few seldom times when Megamind could truly surface.

He realized it hadn't been two things in one person; in had been three things walking around at once. The avatar was just the middle-form of the true Addiku that wanted to burst out, and used while he manifested himself inside the true Megamind. That meant Megamind was sort of like a second layer while the Addiku grew in the bottom one, waiting for an opportunity to burst out. It was like… evil paper machê.

"It was like there were three layers of material I was sandwiched between", he spoke aloud to Roxanne. "The avatar was the top one, and the Addiku was at the bottom waiting to expand and materialize into the world."

"And the berry just yanked him out from the layers, making the avatar disappear along with it?" Roxanne guessed, beginning to see his insight.

"Exactly", Megamind breathed, still amazed that she of all people knew exactly what he was saying almost all the time. One of the reasons he was so attracted to her, and had to keep himself from making out with those teasing red lips standing right in front of him. He wanted to pull himself against her, but hesitated, not knowing if it was the right time yet.

"I wouldn't be surprised if Jhonny's prowling around the perimeter of the cottage right now", he said with a note of fear in his voice. He had seen his face. Tigurr had come back from spying on him and Narcissa ashen-faced about how he was now a free-for-all and susceptible to the most torturous of deaths from a creature who adored life to gory limits. Huh. Megamind had never known anyone could love life with such intensity as to go that far, but then again he was a mosnter… created out of bits of him.

And as Roxanne laid there and pondered…

"Megamind." She looked him in the eye firmly, just to make sure, since you never knew what was going to happen around here at any time. He listened attentively.

"This is going to sound odd… but I don't ever want you be like Jhonny is. He scared me, seeing your face on another bloody, completely insane body… and he's not human either."

Megamind was baffled. "Why would I become thirsty for blood and go on killing rampages?"

Roxanne searched for an answer. "I meant that I don't want you to ever fall victim to something he might try to infuse inside you, since his real intentions were to manifest inside of you and ultimately purge you out so you wouldn't exist. He might try to do it again instead of just tear you apart.

Roxanne had a point, but then another thought was brought to mind. "Tigurr said he worked for Narcissa, and he was also saying something about saving all of us for later, not just jumping us and eating out our stomachs. Do you think he'll obey?" Megamind was doubtful.

"Well, if he doesn't obey Narcissa might try to backstab like she always does and decapitate him instead, but with his disturbing love for life, that might be the only thing he strived to obey."

"He's a coward…" Megamind realized with a huff. "A coward that can kill… now that is truly dangerous."

"And I don't want him trying to infuse those thoughts inside of you by connecting with you again. Narcissa might have ordered him to do that. You can't be too safe around here."

She was making so many points she could have been a pencil sharpener. But they were talking about the Addiku here, not what lay between them, since Jhonny had just been brought up amid what they had started, which did originally relate directly to their relationship.

But it was trust that had been wrecked, and both of them knew it at the same time.

"Roxanne…" he reached up to caress her face softly, a kiss landing on her forehead, where those brilliant reporter smarts were. "The Addiku tried to come between us as well."

"I can't deny that", she muttered sadly. "You don't trust me very much now, do you?"

"I want to but… I also can't blame you for considering a break-up if I couldn't be returned to my normal self. The Addiku kept saying that if he couldn't wipe me off of the planet itself, he'd keep the avatar and the gloomy attitude, leaving me inside and dormant for my life to go on without you. It would be like I was already dead."

"I'd never survive."

"Me neither, really, because… we have a bond."

Roxanne's eyes begged for him to clarify.

"Well, my kind chooses one mate for a lifetime from the moment the partners kiss on the lips." He was brought back to the sudden, heated first kiss at the hotel, the happening seeming like it was ages ago. They had both wanted so much to be with each other and to seal the bond at least halfway, even if Roxanne was not in the know. He expected a worried reaction from her, but was relieved when it didn't come.

"And Tigurr and I deduced earlier today that the only reason our parents all sent us to Earth was that they hoped for us to continue our race there, which therefore makes us able to be together and establish this bond. That makes it a first."

Roxanne found it amazing that she of all women was loved to pieces by this incredible blue spaceman, and out of all the possibilites capable of happening, they were compatible. It certainly had to be historical.

"If we're without each other for a prolonged amount of time, we'll start wanting each other's company, and if we're kept apart for too long, we'd eventually die."

Roxanne's eyes widened now. "How long is a long time?"

"Months. Several months, so there should be nothing to worry about", Megamind consoled her.

"Good", Roxanne sighed. She paused for a long moment.

"What do I have to do to gain your trust again?"

At that question, Megamind went blank. She had not actually done much, really, but he did feel a bit… odd. He wanted to skip straight to the kissing now, yet he needed to sort this out with her first. It was like a child that wanted to play computer games, but had to do chores.

He pulled her a little closer. "Well… for one… just keep this promise for me."

Roxanne listened intently.

"Don't let Narcissa kill you. If one of us should die, it should be me. You didn't have to be in the middle of all this."

"No", Roxanne broke in. "I want to fight her. There might be a danger of dying, but I swear I won't. Just because I'm human and I'm missing the smoke and lights doesn't mean I can't try to take on the most evil thing we've ever encountered." She gave him a peck on his gloriously blue cheek.

"Do you really swear?"

"Cross my heart and hope to live a long, happy life with you."

The words prodded at Megamind's heart. Soon he had that endearing little ditzy look on his face he sometimes got when he was just completely, ears-over-ankles in love with that wonderful woman. She would keep her promise, and he knew it. If anyone should die, it should be him.

Roxanne gazed upon the familiar face she so loved to look at, neon green eyes, and powder-blue skin and little strip of black hair under his succulent, teasing bottom lip. He had been returned to her at last, just when the bonded feelings began to emerge, and when the longing started. Now he was back here, and hey were just inches apart.

Roxanne gave a long stare at his body; long, thin, fit and alien curled up under the white sheets. It was also back to that normal, provocative physique as it had been for so long. She had admired and known it all too well.

The reporter grinned coyly and leaned in to kiss him on the lips. He parted them slightly, hoping and expecting her lips to land on his, but a the last second she pulled away, their mouths barely grazing. Even through that meager touch, she felt that his lips were hot with his anticipation, and when she pulled back, he pouted at her.

"I've nearly forgotten just how much of a temptress you are, Miss Ritchi."

"Forgotten my tricks? All my tactics that make you blush so adorably?" Roxanne smiled.

"Please", Megamind breathed. "Such tricks…"—he moved in a fraction of an inch—"won't work… on… mnnn…"

He gave in to his heart thundering, and his face on fire, not bothering to finish his sentence coherently as he made one smooth move to kiss her deeply on her plump red lips. Finally.

The feeling it brought him made him peaceful. In love. Happy. A surge of electriciy coursed through his nerves from the edges of his mouth to his toes. The emotion was better now than he'd ever felt before.

The sensation of their mouths pressing together more and more firmly. The hand slithering up his back to touch his sensitive ears. The other tigheting around his small waist to pull him in closer, relishing in the wonderful contact with this amazing, genius alien. He missed it all, and he missed Roxanne. He wanted to kiss her forever.

They came apart momentarily,their lips making a small noise as they parted. Their eyes locked, fogged from affection.

"I love you…" Roxanne whispered.

Megamind kissed her tenderly. Then he kissed her again. "I love you too… so much…"

His lithe, warm body pressed against Roxanne's, begging to be closer to her. Arms snaked around black cotton. Blue hands carded into cinammon hair and then lips opened so the kisses became deeper and more passionate.

It felt amazing whenever he kissed her like _that_. Dreamlike, almost. His emerald eyes rolled way into the back of his skull as he dipped his tongue far into Roxanne's mouth, and was met by her own.

"Roxanne…uhmmm…"

Megamind's bare toes curled.

Roxanne moaned into his mouth.

And then blue fingers traced a pattern around the tendons of her neck, supple azure lips leaving hers to instead nibble on those muscles. The reporter sighed. She remembered that feeling.

His goatee tickled her skin, perfect little Chiclet teeth dredging just barely across her neck to make her shiver. She felt the hot tongue dart out like a snake's to taste the slightly sweet esscence of her skin, and then felt those highly adored lips give her open kisses all along the length, stopping to suck on some of it while he was at it.

"Hey, look at me…" Megamind smiled. "I'm Eboni." He bit into more of her neck softly, lovingly.

Then suddenly, Roxanne grabbed his face in her hands and watched his frozen expression until she turned him over and gave him the same treatment.

There was more moaning from him, she expected that. She loved it. Years of wearing all those popped collars nearly every day made his neck sensitive. And how could she have resisted his creamy blue skin she had to hold herself back from eating for such a long time? He had a gorgeous neck.

She became daring and dragged her flattened tongue from the hollow in his collarbone, past his bobbing Adam's apple, all the way to the magenta ear.

Megamind hugged her tightly. "Roxanne… if you stop…" He didn't need to finish his sentence, for she already knew the answer. She could feel his heart pattering through his thin, soft cotton wear.

He made a number of little noises that showed his pleasure. He growled… purred…

He loved it.

His skin was so soft, Roxanne was afraid of making him bleed. She had already left purple markings on the strong tendons, and he relished in it. He tilted his head back into the pillows to expose more of that powdery skin that seemed to glow in the soft moonlight from the bubbled window. What did truly glow in the dark, though, were those intoxicating green eyes no other man on the planet would posess. It made him absolutely one of a kind. Her unique, charming, handsome little Megamind.

After more kisses and writhing and licking and nipping, the spaceman was worn out. His heart was racing. The day had ben toiling. He wanted to do this all night, but he did need sleep .

They shared one last deep, longing smooch before Megamind's blue forehead met Roxanne's, and he nuzzled her gently with it.

"Roxanne, angel, I'm really tired…" He confessed. He stared into those aqua blue eyes for a moment longer before tugging the mussed-up covers up over both of them. "But… let's enjoy this peace together before we go to certain war tomorrow."

Roxanne laughed through her nose dryly. "It's been a hard day." She yawned. "We do need sleep."

Megamind draped his arms around the brunette, and she did likewise. They snuggled into the matress, sinking into it and pressing together safely, securely.

Their foreheads touched, and eventually, they both slept all through the night.

Jhonny Blue had been standing stock-still by the window the entire time. **(JASON... XDD RANDOM COMMENTARY...)**

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><p>Eboni Blackheart took a deep breath of the crisp night air, catching a faint, irritating whiff of mangy wolves in the far distance, mixed with the odor of blood, which she knew was what Jhonny stunk of right now. The creep was standing, still as a statue, peering right into one of the windows of the cottage. The room Megamind and Roxanne occupied. He was creepier than a stalker!<p>

She stared at him a long time, until his neck whipped around to face her with impossible speed. His face went hideous, reminding her of those monstrous mermaids. His pupils enlarged to one black splotch while the wormlike tongue came alive with mucous poison as it slithered out of the razor-teeth.

Eboni barely flinched, but decided if she was going to have any time to herself, she would have to outrun him before he decided to confront her.

Change that to out_fly_.

Eboni leapt off of the roof of the cottage and soared into the night sky, vampiric powers doing all the work for her. Jhonny made a stance, and then when she bolted off, he followed.

And he was supernaturally fast.

"Prostii…," Eboni mumbled in Romanian. She swerved up to the heavens, spiraling up and up and up until air got thin. Once she was high enough, she swatted the pesky clouds out of the way, and looked down over Paris.

Narcissa's garden stretched on as far as the eyes could see towards the east. The rest of the world was abustle with lights, and ignorant people. The last thing they were expecting was to get obliterated by a monster loosed on the city, and eventually consuming Europe. Eboni had recently recieved new information from a member of the Dissent. Narcissa was to unleash powerful, nearly unstoppable monsters on every continent, since she had a reserve for one on each piece of land. When the time was right, they'd run free and cause devastation.

But they had some good news. Tenfold more dryads and Scottish gnomes had been added to the rebellious team, and given the right instructions for when to rebel. Eboni and the Dissent member had also talked about a scheduled time and place for when the battle would officially start. Eboni had said they had a little problem to take care of first, and would be delayed for a few days. The rebel had agreed, and said that they and the Retalitation needed just a little more time to make sure everything was precise and in order. Good. Everything was going well so far.

From the high-up altitude, Eboni suddenly felt trapped. Paris was standing with wide open arms on the other side of the garden, right beyond Narcissa's enormous mansion. She figured she could just fly right out of the whole thing and escape so she wouldn't have to deal with all the tension she was creating, but what stopped her was the invisible barrier no magical creture could cross. If she tried to break through it, she'd just get a bad concussion and plummet to the ground. That was what happened to the other dipsticks that had tried to escape through what they thought had been simple means. They were brain-dead.

Eboni grumbled when she heard the hiss of Jhonny, running around the garden trying to find her. He couldn't fly. He'd never get her.

Eboni flew on through the expanse of dead foliage, the killer bounding along behind her like a pilot fish on a shark. The wind whipped through her short, streaked hair and rushed past her ears. Flying was wonderful, exhilirating, but she was really annoyed at the moment by that insane little Addiku that had manifested into the world. Couldn't Narcissa have chosen some delay that was less enthusiastic about life? Less insane? He was apt to go against her wishes and kill eveything he saw, unless the punishment was death itself. He had come into the world solely to be a sadistic opposite of Megamind, whom he had feasted off of and eventually was created into reality, and loved life so much, he took it to bloody measures. Totally Narcissa's choice of precaution… but the real question was, did he have the brains to go along with it?

Eboni chuckled darkly to herself. Maybe Jhonny would turn out to be quite stupid. That combined with his intense hunger for carnage made him quite dangerous, but not invincible.

And idea stopped the young vampire dead in her tracks, but as she thought more and more about it, the more unforgivable it seemed. She would just get judged for it, and then pretty soon the whole rebellion would turn on her. And if one person knew, even if they swore to God to keep their lips sealed, somehow it always breached to the surface, and then everyone knew. You couldn't keep a bad secret for a terribly long time, even if you had good intentions to change underneath it all. Because of her true background, the Rebels would stick a silver sword through her on sight if she ever confessed.

She felt like Annabelle. And she did know about the deal with her diary. Eboni wanted so badly to just return it and die and get it over with. It would be the best way to repay her sins without anyone knowing about her other life had lived purely by acciddent until the stake touched her heart. Then she wouldn't have to ever be on this unclean planet again to face anyone.

It would be a shameful demise for her.

Eboni growled in anger at how utterly confused she wound up. She'd like to bite someone right now. Maybe she could swoop down for a taste of Jhonny to satisfy herself. She'd only tasted her own blood for so long. It wouldn't do anything to Jhonny since he was immune to vampires, and Narcissa was probably the only one who knew how to kill a formed Addiku.

Eboni's brow furrowed, and her magenta eyes lit up with evil glee as her fangs elongated, and then she corckscrewed downward to the cannibal and tackled him.

He hissed and a few surly fists left her muscles sore, but he was lying on the ground and that meant no weapons for him unless he could draw a butcher knife out of thin air.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Jhonny groused in a nightmarish voice. Eboni gave no answer and simply placed her fangs on his neck and sunk them in nice and solid into those foreign tendons she so missed to sink into. Jhonny seized to convulse and thrash and instead arched his back and laughed sadistically. More pain. He loved pain.

"S-suck my neck until you rip off the skin!" he absolutely giggled. Eboni went so deep, her other normal teeth had started to break the skin as well. Blood. She had never tasted Addiku blood, and she found that it was very similar to Indian blood, but with a slight, cloying tang she could smell from the back of her throat. Delicious.

After she had had her fill, her teeth popped out of the thick neck, making a slimy sound of his muscles trying to reform. She wanted to run away from him, avoid him at all costs, but lapping up the residual blood left on her lips and face was practically nescessary if she was to survive without Megamind's creamy neck for a while.

Before she knew it, her fangs had retracted.

Oh no.

Jhonny sat up as if he were rising out of a tomb from the dead. His pupils were measly specks. His smile was starting to rip apart the corners of his lips. Eboni stared at the two pinpricks in his neck that had already crusted over with dried blood.

"I think I love you…" Jhonny whispered hoarsely.

"Shut up", Eboni grouched. "You're insane."

"I love life…" he said in a phantomish voice, his muscled and slightly bloody arms wrapping around his shoulders.

Eboni raised an eyebrow and grimaced a bit. Did Narcissa have a screw loose? Well, of course, that was the matter with both of them and Andromeda, really. Insanity, and insanity made anythihng dangerous. That was why Jhonny had appealed to her so much as a trustworthy, and most likely temporary henchman.

"How are the Rebels… holding up? Frightened out of their wits, I wager?" Jhonny said malovently.

"Actually, no. No, they're not", Eboni said flatly, her expression fed up already with this idiot Narcissa had created, and had almost used to kill Megamind outright. Eboni felt uncomfortable associating with him. She was supposed to rebel and be rid of the dark side she had latched onto in secret, not make any more plans with Jhonny and dig herself deeper in the damp, dark hole she had been creating for years. If she dug any deeper, even and inch now, the earth above the hole would simply crumble and tumble down onto her head, leaving her buried in soil to suffocate. Even if she did end up suffocating to do the right thing in the end, she would suffocate with honor at what she had righted. No more chances to change the outcomes of her past, but at least she would definitely take her one last opportunity to prove her reputation wrong and save the world in the process. One.

"Well…" Jhonny began darkly. "I can very well MAKE… them afraid…"

He wiggled his clawed fingertips, the bloodied white tips clicking together, and the other hand reaching behind his back to unstrap a long knife like ones people got killed with in horror movies. Eboni could just imagine Jhonny standing over an innocent little Tigurr, curled up in his sleep, the killer's eyes glowing in the dark before the weapon plunged into the alien's stomach…

"Er, what I meant to say was… No, no they're not scared outta their wits…they're froz'n with terror and quiver at the thought o' you."

Was he stupid enough to buy it?

Jhonny tossed the knife back into the collection strapped to his back and planted his hands on his hips. "They should be. Pansies they are."

Eboni breathed a mental sigh of relief. She was glad the Rebels had not decided to try and enslave an Addiku of their own through a more sinister creature, since most of Narcissa's captives were not terribly stupid, and their Addiku doubles tended to be dangerous and cocky like some sort of haywire chemical experiment.

"So… any updates on how they plan to undermine the most beautiful woman on the planet?" Jhonny asked with a voice like poisonous, bloodstained silk, of course referring to Narcissa. See, even his voice sounded like it could flow out from his mouth and taint victims with filth so they dropped dead. He was intruguing… and infuriating… and had an ego like the old Megamind's.

Blue tented his evil-looking claws and narrowed his eyes so he looked remarkably like the blue genius when he was brooding up his nefarious plots back in the evil days. The resemblace was horrifying, seeing his face on the body of a total monster.

Eboni's face remained expressionless, but inside the walls of her skull, her thoughts spun. She had to tell him truthfully without giving away information that was raw and ripe and perfectly flawless that was supposed to go off without a hitch in Narcissa's demise. But lies… lying was the best she could do now. He was pretty dull after all; his weapons were sharper than he was.

"Hmph. Well, they're sendin' the… Dissent to go and tranquilize the dragon that's s'posed to rampage through Europe. You better tell Narcissa so she c'n go stop 'em. But forgive me if I got mis'nformed. The inf'rmation was a lil' hazy."

There. She lied. It was only one-tenth true. The rebellious groups were considering stopping the attack on Paris at the source, which was the Onyx Dragon. If they decided to try, either the Retalitaion or the Dissent, they would need to wait out Narcissa's ambush or be forwarned so they could counter her. There was just so much Eboni had to do to keep her secret a secret, her gut wrenched at the thought of more of that type of numbing work that always possessed the danger of being caught and destroyed.

Jhonny grabbed her by her forearms in one swift movement and dug the metallic claws into her skin. He lifted her into the air and shook her violently.

"Jhonny… Blue… does not FORGIVE ANYTHING!" Eboni could see his eyes going in opposite directions. He had just showed her even more true, sheer madness. Why was he so incredibly crazy?

"Put me DOWN."

"No."

"Dude. S'riously That's getting old", Eboni droned. "And p'rsonally, I don't wanna get blood pois'ning in my arm, so I highly suggest you put me down b'fore I kill you with your own knife."

Jhonny's eye twitched. A bead of sweat rolled down his face and dribbled over the scar that stitched his very face together. "N-n-no one c-can k-k-kill me!"

Jhonny dropped her. She landed hard on her rump as he laughed and howled maniacally to the moon smiling in the sky.

"God, you're annoying…." She muttered under her breath. Eboni stood up, wanting to strangle the Addiku, but knew even attempting would make it worse. He could jump her. She didn't want to get hopelessly mutilated.

He crouched down to the ground as if he were a frog getting ready to leap. "I'll inform Narcissa on you findings", he hissed. "You are such a dirty little traitor. I love it. Maybe someday you can be almost as superior as ME!" he snickered.

"Oh, yeah, that'll happen…" she mumbled.

Jhonny took a last scrutinizing look at his little co-worker before leaping back into the woods to lurk around all night in search of more decent live food that might be wandering around. He'd never sleep. Addiku's didn't sleep. What if he chose to invade the house? Tigurr would truly be in trouble.

Eboni had an idea. If she could just russle up a few ravens hanging around in the brambles of the garden, then she could hypnotize them into defending the house. Pecking birds could drive Jhonny away just as well as anything else that might have worked.

More work to keep her true self under wraps. It would take a while, but it was worth it.

After all, she knew she was going to die in the end, so why not?

Eboni smirked to herself, shooting up into the air and leaving her stomach behind. She had some crows to catch.

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><p>YAY... ALFRED HITCHCOCK! Only seasoned movie lovers will get my refrence XD was that not the CRUDDIEST apology EVER? ARGH! I need to map out future chapters on paper. Seriously. I'm so flaky and dependent on immediate ideas, I think a magic plot will just fall into place like that. WRONG! Well, this is my first novel ever... nothing can be supremely perfect. I'm no J.K. Rowling after all! SIMPLE COMMONER!<p>

Well, I got a more humorous series planned for Megamind, and it will be better. I will have a couple new OC's, personalities carefully chosen and begging to be infused in my writing. I might make a little "test run" for one, using her in a sort of preview ficlet to the upcoming stories... IDK. I'm already stumped for what comes next in Bleu Leather. SEEYA!


	33. Chapter 33

HOLA Everyone! Here is chapter 33! Hope this make you feel better, Shiriter :) And Mysterious, you are probably FLIPPIN OUT too! I wish this story were more populer, but ah well. It's my first story I have ever written, and I think the beginning is the big problem here... but no worries! There is plenty of writing to come, and PLZ REVIEW! Even if you're just passing by! I saw some people with this story on their favorites who DON'T REVIEW! :/ OKIE, nevermind, enjoy!

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><p>Chapter 33<p>

Gray light fell distorted through the bubbled window, cascading across the room where two figures slept entangled in each other. A lone crow cawed outside in the distance, flying away from the house it had been guarding overnight, the agression spell on it now broken. Eboni's job of protecting the house had succeeded.

Rays of sun began to stream out from the clouds; seldom beams of light that seemed like they would never return with the gray weather that had been happening all this time. Narcissa didn't control morning light. It was her alarm clock. After a few hours, the skies would be stormy once again.

But the amount of light coming in the room was enough to rouse Megamind from his sleep slowly, blinking until he was fully awake and aware of the warmth wrapped around him.

Roxanne was still pressing against his front, safely enveloped around him and looking so brand-new and innocent in the morning light. The little sunbursts radiating from the window fell upon her skin and made it glow like his eyes in the dark. She looked beautiful, to say the least. So beautiful, all his, and completely confident she could stand up to Narcissa when the war ultimately came over them. She would keep her promise. She wouldn't die.

Megamind nuzzled his nose against her forehead affectionately, though she did not wake. He didn't want to force her, but they would have to get up and go eventually, so she could only sleep for a bit longer.

As carefully as possible, Megamind swung his legs out of bed and stretched, his torso elongating. There was only a vague soreness in his muscles, since Tigurr had gone over most of his injuries and bettered them. He could exert through that minor pain.

He rose off of the matress and strecthed his legs so he could walk around the other side of the bed and look out the window, the view outside distorted.

Once he wiped the sleep from his eyes, he could truly see that figure hunched over right outside the house, apparently insistent on not giving up.

"HOLY…" Megamind almost shouted, but then clapped a hand over his mouth.

"_God."_

Jhonny was more persistent than anyone had thought. Obsessive, maybe? He stood just outside the perimeter of the cottage, covered in bleeding wounds that mostly pockmarked his face. Megamind couldn't make out his expression through the distortion of the window.

Had he been pecked by… birds? Would ravens protect the house entirely of their own will?

Megamind threw open the window to face an infuriated Addiku piece of himself. His poisonous tongue darted out, irritated. Then it reached around his face to lick the blood off of it. Megamind was disgusted, but now strangely curious about the birds.

As his head cautiously leaned out the windowsill to look to the right, he saw one more lone crow sitting placidly on the terracotta roof shingles, just within arm's reach. He knew what he was about to do would be kind of stupid, but he was curious through it all. Tigurr might have been equally curious to know, him being part cat and all.

Slowly, and ignoring the hissing and spitting of the monster standing right below him, Megamind chose where to place his hands and then grabbed the bird whole.

One hand was at the feathered neck, and one held its back still while the wings thrashed and black feathers spewed everywhere. The twisted cawing sounds that it screeched were deafening, and Megamind suspected that Roxanne was already sitting bolt upright in bed, but he inspected the fowl closely. Curiosity was often his biggest weakness.

He managed to have the bird tilt its thick neck backwards, and tried not to catch his finger in the razor-sharp beak. Megamind's brows arched in interest.

There were two deep pinpricks, just barely there, on the thin layer of feathers that coated the neck. The flesh around it was swollen, and a dark purple color that was most unnatural. Megamind touched it out of interest, and found that it oozed a milky yellow fluid at the contact.

He grimaced, and then was interrupted of his thinking when he heard the springs of the matress squeak, signifying that Roxanne had awakened.

"Megamind, why the hell are you holding a crow?"

The blue man jumped and then tossed the bird out the open window. It was unprepared for takeoff, and it plummeted to the ground with a drawn-out whine, where Jhonny seized it immediately and began to gnaw on it, feathers and all.

Megamind slammed the window closed, and an awkward silence flooded the room.

"Well, that was pretty stupid."

"I agree Miss Ritchi. I one hundred percent agree…" He flicked the sticky yellow subtance from his fingers, but it wouldn't come off.

Roxanne swung out of bed and pushed past her boyfriend to look out the window to a feasting Jhonny, his serrated teeth already tearing the bird apart with glee.

"What was that?" she asked in bewilderment, shaking her sleep-mussed head.

Megamind decided to come clean with the strange truth. "I was curious, and you know what my curiosity leads to eventually if I'm not stopped or don't consider before acting."

Roxanne raised her eyebrows in knowing, and urging for him to explain fully.

"Jhonny had his face all pecked from birds when I woke up and looked out the window, and I thought it wasn't very normal for crows to attack like in Alfred Hitchcock's movie…"

Roxanne smirked. "Hon, in case you haven't noticed, nothing is normal with what we're involved in now."

"I know, but when I grabbed one of the birds and investigated, it had two pinpricks on its neck right next to each other, and the flesh around it oozed all this liquid onto my hands." He held them up so Roxanne got an eyeful of the putrid fluid staining his blue skin.

"Well don't go shoving them in my face! Wash your hands", she scolded as if he were a small child. "How do you know its not poison? Don't let in seep into your skin."

Megamind slumped and went over to the bathroom that adjoined the bedroom and scrubbed his hands with the flaky soap bar. He thought about the pinpricks in the neck of the crow, looking very much like vampire fang marks seen in movies.

After letting his hands drip water in the sink for longer than necessary, his brain hard at work on putting two and two together, he was intruiged by his hypothesis.

The only person he knew that had fangs was Eboni. What was more, she was a vampire; a creature of the night. Some other animal might have done it… but what if Eboni could…

Megamind shook his head. The odds were too slim. Eboni was a Celt, and Celts hated the taste of blood.

Megan was suited with new clothes for once, and they weren't gags like the ones before. Annabelle's composure had changed from friendly and playful to serious and focused on their mission, and the attitude had gradually been changing all night last night while the friends had stayed up to discuss the options now tht they had a delay named Jhonny Blue in their way. Annabelle, Aidan, Vixen, Kaitoia, Eckere, and Megan had all gathered around to talk, but Eboni had shyed away, claiming that she needed time to think to herself for a bit. Then she hadn't come back at all. Megan had more than one reason to be suspicious.

Except she had been too wrapped up in plotting their strategies and scheduleing with the other groups of rebels for when the uprise would take place. Someone would have to set off the first bomb that triggered the minefield of war. If the Rebels did it without paying any heed to counterattacks by Narcissa, all could spiral downhill, and in an instant everyone would have failed the whole thing, and Earth along with all its inhabitants would be encumbered to do Narcissa's bidding. If Narcissa went first before the Rebels had exterminated the Addiku, she had the likelyhood of unleashing something powerful on them first, since they were sitting ducks and not prepared for anything.

So the best way to prevent anything ugly from happening would be to lay low while they figured out how to get rid of Jhonny, and then get in contact with the other rebellious societies fro updates on progress, observations on Narcissa's possible strategies, and fortified plans that were almot guaranteed to work. They first needed to figure out any weak spots for the bothersome Addiku and attack him in a group because of his brawn. He also had some kinds of superior smelling sense, so they had to watch out ffor that too. And if it was needed, they'd have to baby Tigurr just a little so Jhonny wouldn't maim him. It was the only safe way, and Jhonny was capable of so many unpredictable things, it was hard to believe.

Last night they had gotten little sleep thinking about all the small things first, and then delving deeper and deeper into heavier, complicated conversation. They discussed everything from how to tame the Onyx Dragon if it escaaped onto Pars to who would actually stop Narcissa on their own or grouped up.

And said person would have to be none other than Megamind himself.

Megan hated to decide for her fellow comrades, especially someone as new and unexperienced as the blue genius. If only he hadn't been asleep with Roxanne; if only Kaitoia had not gotten the wrong idea when she heard the kissing behind their door and assumed they'd rather be left alone. After they had fallen asleep, no one wanted to wake them up after they imagined different outcomes of the action, and besides, they both needed rest after what they had been through the past day. Megamind especially needed it. His overworked and traumatized lungs would recover after a night's sleep, so Tigurr had said.

Would he approve of the game plans Megan had set up for him last night?

Megamind wouldn't go it completely alone. Megan was confident that not one of her Rebels would die outright. There had been many close calls in the past, but everyone had been prepared and had thought ahead, and that was what made the Rebels special. They were the brains of the operation. They never underestimated Narcissa, and always overestimated her because she was quite capable of doing anything she wanted. And every occupant of her prison, no matter what dimwits they were… they all knew what raw power she possessed.

Every new prisoner she aqcuired. She did something indescribable to them. Megan had gone through it, and Aidan had gone through it. All of them knew what it was like, but Narcissa hadn't had a chance to bring it upon Megamind and Roxanne when they had gotten here. They had been assisted by the Rebels quicker than ever.

If Megamind had not thrown that plate at Narcissa, everything would havde been different. Megamind would have been scarred for life, and Roxanne likewise. Narcissa always made a point to put all her new little captives through a little procedure she called…

Doom Factoria.

Megan shivered at the thought, and her pulse quickened if snatches of what had happened those couple years ago seeped into her mind. It was just something to induce fear into her prisoners… and it worked every time of she put you through it another time, which was rare, but it had happened. Megan knew of an old, long gone recruit who had gone through it a second time, and died in there in the process. Once you tried Doon Factoria again, it was enough for you to be hurled down into a neverending black pit of insanity, waiting on your last breath and last weak beam of energy for the whole thing to be over, until it started back up again. It tortured you. It seperated friendships and induced the madness instead. Carnivorous madness that didn't even come clome to Jhonny's speed of going round the bend at his highest moments. No, his composure was only a small, vile little sample of what Narcissa was capable of. What she was truly capable of.

Doom Factoria was a show of assertion. A show of who truly ruled around here, and who would rule until the end of time. Narcissa put everyone through it since the beginning of when she had the smallest spark of evil in mind. She needed to show everyone. Needed to have her victims quiver like leaves and crumble under the pressure of a thousand weights, crushed under the heel of her thick boot. Not even the most powerful of magical cretures she incarcerated had ever escaped the fear that Doom Factoria inflicted on them, ever.

Megan was glad that Megamind hadn't gone through Doom Factoria. With the size of his brain, memories were impossible to lose, and he'd get crippled instantly with the intensity of mentally scarring images that would forever haunt him. After hearing what his history was like, Doom Factoria would only turn him paranoid and worthy of a strait jacket and a padded room. If he'd gone through there, the Rebels would have made no progress whatsoever, and Narcissa would have easily taken over the world and enslaved the humans and all other inferior beings.

Megan had talked this over with her team. Everyone agreed that Megamind was an essential puzzle piece in Narcissa's demise. If all went right and was planned precisely, the whole thing would go off without a hitch. Freedom would be theirs. A crushing weight would be removed of their encumbered shoulders after all these centuries of past rebellious societies fighting back and forth between most evil being known to them. Megan followed in their footsteps, determined to be the last generation of hardened, responsible protectors of Earth and its humans. It was an honor, a pleasure and quite and adventure.

The tween fairy wormed out of her deep, deep thoughts and tightened the buckles around her thick leather gloves. Her wild red hair, tied in a messy ponytail draped over a tight vest made of more leather colored a cherry red, which went with her tight black pants. And then her thick-soled brown boots padded across the splintered wooden floor to begin planning the day's work of exterminating that pesky old Jhonny Blue.

Megamind propped his feet up on top of the dusty old kitchen table in the abandoned kitchen where everyone had gathered. After seeing his canniballistic counterpart eat that entire raven raw with Roxanne at his side watching the show with him, he was brewing up attack plans in his brilliant overgrown head. It was such a relief to have his old friend back. He could think and function properly and not have to constantly monitor the scale of negativity his feelings had. He could feel whatever he wanted, and that included another pang of new hatred for Narcissa, and now Jhonny Blue. He hated him for stalling the progression of the Rebels, and he hated him for using him as a basic blueprint to build himself off of, and butcher back into an all but insane evil twin who worked for Narcissa, once again, an object of hatred. Megamind felt an awful lot of hatred. Who wouldn't to those two blasted little mad hatters, each having done something indisputably despicable to him and Roxanne, of all other people? No one messed with Roxanne so violently like that.

Megamind realized this was more hatred than he had ever felt to anyone before. That was because he had never faced black magic like this before, or believed in it at all. Villains like Narcissa were not common in Metro City. He was brought back to think about the coincidence that he had decided with such perfect timing to take Roxanne to Paris, even if it was a small show of affection that had turned into a global war at the snap of his leather-clothed fingers. If he hadn't loved Roxanne so much, he wouldn't have been here. If he had stayed back home, Kaitoia would have been left undiscovered.

And he wouldn't claim his rightful place as heir to the Staff. What had he gotten into? Was it good or bad? He was going to get killed. Or would he save everyone?

One thing was for sure, and he realized it with a small wonder. This had happened because he was in love. He had heard about people doing crazy things for love, but this was… just… mind-blowing. And accidental! He never meant for it to be like this, but he would dang well try to save everyone's souls from Narcissa's reign of evil if it really did end in a puddle of blood. He was a hero. He was a hero.

Annabelle was reclined on the chipped tile counter in the slightly musty kitchenette. Now they were all settled down, ready to discuss, and trying to ignore the person on topic stalking around the house and visible right outside the window.

Megamind uncrossed his legs andd crossed them again the other way.

"So… lovely weather out there, huh?"

Kaitoia gave a dry laugh. "Oh, come around, it'll be worse in a minute. Narcissa controlling the weather and trying to foreshadow evil that has too much potential to be foretold by weather. I'm surprised."

"But is that really the topic of disscussion right now, darling?" Her minion, Vixen, asked her while letting her fluffy tail hang languidly off of the spice rack she rested on. Megamind had heard her speak for the first time. She had controlled facial expressions that were of a human's capability like Minion, but she looked the cat part all the way. Her accent was more posh than Kaitoia's, but had a stubborn undertone he identified, something that signified she wasn't a lazy old housecat. She had partaken in many other battles with Narcissa as well. Seeing her waltz about today was almost like she had never been nearly dead in a burlap sack yesterday, slung over Tigurr's shoulder.

Kaitoia batted absentmindedly at her minion's curling tail that grazed the top of her smooth blue head. "No, it's not our current topic. I'd really be more comfortable if our current topic would stop hovering outside the window with his ugly, bloody face, and GO AWAY!"

Tigurr swiftly stood up from his seat, annoyed by Jhonny just as much as Kaitoia was, and stood at the window the monster was peering through.

He threw the glass upwards in one move.

"TIGURR!" The room resounded with his name, but the catman was too busy hissing and scratching at Jhonny, having sensed his opportunity, and was trying to leap into the house.

Tigurr kept scratching and scratching while everyone stared, and eventually Vixen came in to help. Jhonny's hands were too busy grasping fruitlessly and battling with the razor-sharp claws in Tigurr's gloves and Vixen's paws, getting more and more scarlet by the minute until no one could bear to look at the mess they'd made that was so bad, the killer at the window retreated with an anguished roar. His face was barely recognizeable now as he cradled it in his leather-coated hands, trying to stem the blood flow while he surrendered back into the dead forest.

Tigurr slammed the window shut with a sense of finality in the hollow sound it made that resounded thorugh the room dripping with shock at what had just happened.

His fearful frown grew and grew while Vixen simply looked irritated at the blood on her paws she could barely see because it was obscured by her scarlet fur. Reluctantly, she began licking them, gagging in between her tounge's work. She jumped back on her spice rack where she continued to clean them, giving Tigurr suspicious glances as she did so.

His face looked absolutely pallid.

"What are you all twisted up about now?" The talking cat sighed.

Tigurr stared at his bloodied hands, mouth agape. He gulped harshly.

"It's just blood", Eckere stated innocently. "Haven't you gotten soaked with blood before? Like a lot of times before?"

"This is Addiku blood", he breathed.

"I need to… get it… off…" Now his face was going a little green.

Megamind glanced at his staff laying protected across his lap, his eyes flitting up and down its neck with the serpents coiled around it. Water was needed to wash hands, and there was no water in the kitchen sink except for a few trickles.

Taking careful aim, thinking hard, Megamind raised the orb and shot a jet of water at Tigurr to get his attention. It splashed clear across his face.

"What was that for?" He sputtered.

"Water _for_ you to wash the blood off", Megamind smirked. "Almost none of the faucets work in this house."

Tigurr tried swatting the water away with his wrists, but received a scarlet streak across his cheek.

"Ugh!" He growled.

"I'll clean it up", Megamind sighed. As he stood up to assist Tigurr in his little bit of a phobia of Addiku blood, he said, "Now we were talking about eliminating Jhonny and getting him out of the way so our path will be clear for attacks to Narcissa. How do you kill an Addiku, exactly?"

Everyone in the room exchanged uncertain quips, but Megamind's peripheral vision could reach far enough to glimpse Eboni looking to the left and pawing something in one of her pockets. She slumped back into her seat after a few seconds. Curious.

"Winging it."

"What?" Megamind frowned and snapped his head around to stare at his sister. Tigurr yelped when Megamind accidentally smacked him across his upturned nose.

"There's never been a solidly recorded method of something that's sure to kill it. But let me rephrase that anyway: we wing it by coming up with a zany plan that has a 50% chance of working."

The whole room resounded with her own name, irritated at the carelessness that was inching into her attitude.

"Ok! Ok, I'll just stop talking because I'm in a lousy mood…"

Megan rolled her luminescent blue eyes and flipped a strand of hair almost as fiery as Aidan's out of her face. "From what Tigurr observed last night, Jhonny's on Narcissa's side, and the reason why Jhonny's prowling around us like so is just to hold us off for a little while longer. Eboni also came back in the wee hours of the morning saying that he's not the brightest monster in existence."

"Then our attacks should be easy. We just outwit him", Annabelle stated plainly.

Megan turned to her friend, straddling her chair in one move so she made proper eye contact. "He can draw lethal weapons out of thin air, and he's an unstable Addiku worthy of… you know, the _thing._"

Most of the room now resounded with fearful intake of breath, leaving Megamind and Roxanne a bit confused.

"What exactly is the _thing?_" Roxanne begged for elaboration.

"I should not have mentioned that…" Megan growled through gritted teeth, sinking back into her chair. "Later. You two really don't need to know about it now." And everyone resumed discussing while the couple exchanged incredibly suspicious glances, crystal eyes meeting poison green with disapproval.

Megamind, having finished cleaning Tigurr of the blood, tossed the found dishrag he had used in the task aside and the two aliens swiftly took their seats once again. "I have one question", Tigurr piped up as he slid into the barstool and crossed his streamlined legs encased in durable cotton. "I know Narcissa's messed up and all, but why would she choose an unstable form of life to buy some time for herself? Sounds stupid. She's not stupid."

"I don't think his brains mattered to her", Aidan said. "Whatever she's getting ready for, it might not take as long, but through that she might have needed just a sliver more time. And plus she's a disturbed sicko that loves nothing more than seeing a lung being torn out of an open wound in the neck, so a psychotic demon would have been her first choice."

The Rebels considered this before Aidan continued. "And to further engage in her love of carnage, she allowed Jhonny to be able to tear you to pieces, Tigurr. Although I do have to say, nice work warding him off with your claws like that."

"Thanks", the purple alien said. Aidan received an annoyed stare from Kaitoia's minion and in turn complimented her immediately.

"Well, if whatever she needs to prepare won't take long, we need to make progress like… now", Eckere reasoned. "But we do need a plan, even if it's teeny."

"Megan, d' you care if we've a plan or not? As a group we migh' be able t' take Jhonny down easy", Eboni said as she picked at her vampire claws. Having socialized with him the night before and receiving a very truthful and revealing first impression , she guessed this would be easier than the time she had fought off and ran from zombies Narcissa had created to try and obliterate the head of all the rebellious societies. They'd overpowered them with the greatest strategy they had had in months because they were just rotted corpses from past creatures running about, and they stereotypes were partially right. They were very stupid, but you had to gut them of all their organs for them to die, not just decapitate them.

"Right, Eboni. But…" Megan twirled her finger absently in the air as she searched for the right words. "Jhonny is teamed up with Nacissa, and that would mean that he could have comrades with him, too. Unless his ego is big enough for him to try to fight with just an ax or something, which would be my best guess… but plans are the best way to go."

"Okay then Commander", Annabelle grinned recklessly. "What do we do?"

Megamind gave an 'ah!' of realization, stood the Staff upright and then slammed it down on the hardwood floor. A small shockwave went through the room. "Now no one can hear us", he smiled slyly.

Aidan's hair alighted momentarily, inspiration having gone through him of its own accord.

"Idea", he simply said. "I have an idea."

The water swirled with ribbons of scarlet; his own scarlet. It was pretty. When the water rippled, the blood shifted with it and twisted into delicate little patterns that were planned out almost like a detailed work of needlepoint. Precise, beautiful, and fun to look at every last tiny stitch that was a swirl of the red matter.

Jhonny's face had never looked so horrid. But he had washed most of the blood away now, and he looked a little better. He healed fast; almost too fast sometimes. But his face couldn't very well looked like it had been skinned off! No, that would never do. He had to kill, and kill looking decent while he was covered in innards and hot, hot blood. Last night and the aggressive crows combined with all the scratching that horrible purple alien had given to him not an hour ago made him look like he was about to have a face transplant. He had lain a palm on the side of his face, and when it came away, it was stained with ruby all over. But a few rinses down at the pure mermaid pond but him into shape. He also had to re-sew some of the stitches that held his face together, and that had been easy too. Now he could think properly.

While he watched his own blood dissipate into the mermaidless water, he swirled his finger around in the midst of it and sighed. It was an inhuman noise that sounded raspy and throaty, and just hearing it could make you want to choke.

He felt… a disturbance. His long purple tongue darted out to taste the air, the tip swirling around and dripping the slightest bit of poison that acted as lubrication so that he could intensify the sense. He hissed. He couldn't find anything. He sensed something he couldn't smell, and it frustrated him.

He tried again, the tongue slithering out full length, which was about three feet long. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. He wanted so much to eat up that little rascal of a cat-alien, it hurt. He growled and stood up, throwing his head up to the sky, his long wormlike appendage dancing in the air and twisting in on itself. Nothing.

It slapped back into his mouth, and with another low growl he drew his machete out of thin air. He held it close to him in case he encountered anyone that wandered by. They'd be sorry for messing with his senses.

"Come… out…" he rasped. Although it was fruitless, his tongue darted out every second like a snake's in case he could get any reception from a nearby body. What he wanted most was to find a Rebel and teach them a lesson that would never be forgotten. He wanted to kill, but Narcissa had ordered him that only injuries were allowed for most. He could do whatver he wanted to Tigurr, him being only an interrebellious messenger. He would not be missed as one of her pawns in the giant, bloody chess game she was playing.

Then he realized at last. Someone might be using a form of cloaking technology that was too powerful for his smell to penetrate. Clever, but he'd find them eventually.

The clawed toes of his boots dug into the dehydrated ground that went beyond the sand of the shore that led to the enormous mermaid sanctuary. He felt the little pebbles underneath the thin leather of the sole, but his footfalls made not a sound against the chilling breeze and the rustle of slender dead tree branches. A raven flew overhead silhouetted against the pale gray sky. Not even his sharpened hearing picked up anything out of place. Interesting…

But just in case, the iron-hard grip tightened on the smooth handle of his deadly weapon. He was a cobra that was more than ready to strike at any time.

Then finally, his hearing pounced on it as he whirled around to the direction of that meager sound. A twig had just cracked. Good, someone was here; someone he could hurt badly for doing this to him. Another device was produced from the air and landed in his sticky palm. He rolled it around in his hand before estimating the location of the unseen assailant and then chucked it hard at the ground.

A flurry of thick smoke tinged with a hint of minty green shot upwards in milky, cloudy clumps. It smelled slightly of mold, and Jhonny absolutely howled with evil laughter when he heard two distinct voices he had memorized from yesterday cry out in surprise, and then abruptly seem to slap their mouths closed at their mistake. No use, even if they had stayed silent. Blue could see them perfectly silouhetted against the thick, foul-smelling fog from his revealing bomb.

All at once everything seemed to stop and go into battle mode. Not even in the next moment had he lunged for the taller figure he had made out to be his special little prey, Tigurr, judging by the tail he had seen waving from his backside in the outline the smoke had revealed.

"I have you!" he cried triumphantly. "You're—"

He was holding his machete over the vampire, not the cat.

"Wrong rascal", Eboni huffed with a mischevious grin, and as she watched Jhonny's bewildered face, she slid out from under him as Tigurr came from behind, swiftly kicking the Addiku in the back of the skull.

Before he could react further, he was rolled over on his back, a hand pinned beneath his spine at a painful angle. He did not acknowledge it, for little pains like that were common now, but he instead focused on those two slick little Rebels that had captured him in a matter of a few seconds.

Thinking fast, his free hand flew up before it could be restrained and out of thin air he assembled a long dagger much like the one Narcissa owned. His sadistic smile came back with a flourish as he aimed for Tigurr's jutting purple cranium and sliced it through the air.

"Holy-!" Tigurr ducked, but still came away with a thin red line on his forehead, and soon he felt the warmth start to stream down his face freely, and at once he knew he was in trouble.

With one hand he stemmed the flow, blood being absorbed through his clawed gloves, and with the other he held Jhonny back as much as he could. That was fruitless, and Eboni should have seen it coming, but help was on the way if she just called for it.

The duo had become distracted, and Jhonny breathed in the opportunity through metaphorically starved lungs to have them erupt from their enclosed huddle on him as he regained the upper hand. Tigurr was flung on his back, still clutchig his wound, which he was trying to close up at the moment, but it was taking longer than usual…

Now only bleeding half as much, Jhonny jumped him using his strong back legs, and now he was pinned to the ground, the killer straddling his chest and hold his dagger from before right above him, trembling with so much force it could go through an eye socket at any time.

Eboni did not draw near. Instead she fumbled for her communnicator in her belt and simply pressed one button that let out an alarm that wailed into the foggy air as a signal. She snapped it shut.

And then in a wisp and hiss of flames, Aidan and Megan both dropped out of the air and landed unperturbed on both their feet.

"Quadruple trouble!" Aidan snarled, full of confidence as he began to fight.

"I just hope Megamind finishes training soon", Megan muttered to herself before following the lead and clashing with Jhonny.

The plan had been well thought-out. They would take turns, group by group attacking Jhonny little by little until he could be sedated or killed completely. Megamind and Roxanne would be the last to go, right after Annabelle, Eckere, and Kaitoia. There was one important skill that proved it might be essential if he was to attack from above or quietly and stealthily.

Archery, even if only just a little. But the little that he learned might go a long way since he could learn how something was done and then improve by himself from there on out. It came in handy to have a brain capacity like his, and the perfect lean body that could not make a sound sneaking around, even walking on his haunches through a bed of twigs. Archery was practically made for him.

Roxanne, having learned and remembered the skill from summer camp in her younger years, was teaching him with Kaitoia at his side making minor tweaks at how the bow was being held or how straight the arrow was going. Roxanne had no idea whether Kaitoia was being nitpicky because she didn't particularly get along with her, or if she was fixing these invisible things so Megamind would spot tiny mistakes as such firsthand when he did this alone. Well, she hadn't shot her any dirty looks, and that was definitely a plus.

Megamind now kneeled down on the side of the roof of the house, looking to aim his next arrow over a farther cluster of taller trees. He was making pretty good progress considering he'd been trying this for a mere half-hour. He drew another arrow out of the quiver slung around his back that Annabelle had let him borrow. The quiver never ran out of arrows, she had said. It was a gift to her that the goddess Artemis herself had given her for a birthday, since she had been an ambassador in the city so coincidentally on that day. Annabelle loved to use it when she was exercising on the palace courtyard fit with targets and marks on the ground that displayed the yards an arrow traveled. She had a crossbow as well, but se wanted to keep it to herself. It was made of pure gold. So Kaitoia had loaned her brother her own plain wooden bow.

Megamind drew the sleek arrow out of the quiver, and in one smooth movement of his arm he drew it back on the taut bowstring, ready to shoot. This would be his one perfect shot where he didn't get shaky hands or have an aim that was ever so slightly off. After this, they'd head back in the cottage to wait for their turns to take care of the pestilence that was Jhonny. Someone might manage to at least trap him today, and if not today, Megamind might try a risky rendenzvous at night to face the Addiku head-to-head. That is, he would do it alone if the others were not too sleepy from the day's exertion. Otherwise, another plan would be in motion.

Megamind squinted one eye, aiming the perfect pointed head to just above his target. He did a bit of mental math with the angles and trajectory, and then he let go of the thin cord.

His arrow flew through the air as the two women behind him watched hopefully at where it was headed. It sailed farther and farther into the brush, becoming smaller and smaller until it hit in just the desired spot.

The knot in the blackened trunk he had seen previously was barely noticeable, but Megamind had been aiming right for the middle of it. Everything around them was so silent, you could hear the hollow sound of the arrowhead penetrating the hard wood in all that distance the weapon had covered, and the blue genius smiled smugly to himself.

"Fast learner as I suspected", Kaitoia grinned. "You definitely seem ready to ramp up your attacking skills."

"Want to see something even more amazing?" he suddenly whirled around on his heel and beamed with confidence, drawing another arrow from the quiver and positioning it nearly exactly as he did last time. It flew from the bow expertly, and he bit his tongue watching as it sliced exactly through his last arrow, down to the knot, wood splitting exactly in half so it peeled outward like a blooming flower.

Roxanne's and Kaitoia's jaws both went slack. Megamind knew this, and he automatically reached up with both his hands on eaither side of him to close them gently.

"If you gape that long you'll catch flies", he warned with a soft voice, smirking indefinitely.

Kaitoia stared a while longer at his impressive feat, then turned to her brother. "At this rate you'll be able to hit both of Jhonny's eyes at the same time. Good work, let's get back to the house." Then she hugged him, and he hugged back, and one by one they slid off the roof and onto a certain windowsill, then right back into their shelter.

"Megan and Aidan got called over?" Roxanne asked to no one in particular. Eckere looked up from where she was mindlessly banging her head against the edge of the slightly rotted sink in the kitchenette. Her eyes glowed a bright sky blue, so Roxanne turned aroud to face Annabelle instead.

"Yes", Annabelle said, keeping her eyes fixated on her communicator she had placed on the table in front of her. "I'm probably going too, along with Kaitoia and Eckere if she stops glitching in time…"

"Meatballs", the cyborg sang. "Meatballs, meatballs!"

Annabelle stood up and sighed with great exasperated force, stomping over to Eckere to whack her in the back of the head with her helmet. Megamind jumped back, thinking she had damaged her inner workings, but she hadn't even made a scratch in the paint job he had done several days before. Eckere's eyes flickered from blue to silver and stayed that way.

"She's been saying the same thing since Aidan and Megan went out to help", Annabelle grumbled as she positioned her helmet back on her head of cloudy locks and strode back over to her place at the table to monitor her communicator. Eckere shook her head in bewilderment before being restored back to order.

"Here are your arrows, and you can put the bow away as well", Megamind said, slinging the quiver of those long, streamlined weapons off his shoulder and into the hands of the young princess. Her storage space appeared in the air and she tossed the two objects inside, all while keeping her rounded purple eyes glued to the inanimate communicator.

Megamind sighed and sat down in another chair, rubbing his slightly sore shooting arm. He had a feeling his time of rest would be short-lived, knowing that Jhonny probably wasn't stupid enough to fight completely alone, him being a slave to Narcissa. He could call over assistants to help him if he wanted, and there was no end to what he had or could summon. Were the others all right?

Megamind was jolted out of thinking when Annabelle's communicator finally rang so hard, it hopped right off the table and clattered to the hardwood floor noisily.

"Well, that's our cue!" she announced as Eckere and Kaitoia ran over to her, and the princess hastily stuffed the small device under her winged headpiece. Kaitoia stopped on the way to give her brother a peck on his head, and then all three girls disappeared in a flash of white light.

Roxanne and Megamind were left alone in the suddenly very silent house.

The wolves gathered around him. How had he gotten trapped like this? How could he have walked right into it? How had they come out of nowhere without him sensing it first? Maybe it was the blood flowing out of the cut in his head. But this was a fine situation he was in.

Jhonny summoned wolves to busy the other Rebesl so he could properly spectate his little morsel being saved for later. Three if the monstrous wolves filled with rabies surging in their blood and foaming out the mouth enclosed Tigurr in a circle. They towered almost to his chin, and he couldn't escape without one of them raising a huge paw to slice him in half. The alien had his claws drawn out, but they were useless against the thick fur of the animals, and now he simpey cowered as a last resort, tail between his legs like a helpless little kitten.

"You're not even going to do anything!" Jhonny laughed, obviously very amused at what little Tigurr could do at all. The messenger growled in anger. He didn't have a proper weapon except for the clawed gloves and a few little knifes in tiny scabbards that couldn't make a scratch. The wolves drew nearer and nearer to him, Jhonny's delight increasing by the second, and then they did something unexpected.

Tigurr had his arms raised in preparation for them to pounce on him. But all they did was rear up on their hind legs just as Kaitoia wriggled free of the carcass of a now very dead monster, but just at the very last moment, everything went in slow motion.

Jhonny was knocked out with a swift concussion to the head by Kaitoia's trusted nunchaku, and she leapt over him gracefully to lunge for Tigurr who was disappearing before her eyes. Her arm thrusted out, nearly grazing his sleek hand which was outstretched as well, but then all in a blinding firework of sparkling yellow, he was gone completely.

All she heard was one last of his desperate yowls to the sky.

Sha landed in the dirt, and the wolves trotted over to an unconscious Jhonny to grab a hold of him gently at the shoulders and drag him off into the brambles where they all disappeared without a trace when Megan and Annabelle attempted to steal a glance at where they had gone.

Kaitoia lifted herself off the ground with an angry grunt and wiped the blood off of her scratched cheek. This was exactly where Tigurr had been standing a moment ago. The imprint of her body in the loose, infertile dirt erased his footprints and left the tracks of giant and regular-sized wolves that trailed off into the woods and then just vanished.

The gears of her brain started to turn, and almost all at once, it came to her. She knew nearly all of Narcissa's tricks and her cunning creatures, and this was one of the most well-known.

"Guys", Kaitoia said aloud. "Tigurr's just been put in Jhonny's little food cupboard."

* * *

><p>ZOMG! YOU HATE ME! LET'S MAKE A CLIFFHANGER AND KILL MY KNEE! 8D AND THAT MADE SENSE...<p>

Well! Next chapter will be when a new character comes out! Some of you already know who he is. TWISTING TIME FOR MY PLOT! :D I will finish as fast as I can, but in the meantime, ADIOS I LIKE TO SPEAK ESPANISH! :D


	34. Chapter 34

YAY an update! :D Finished in a week OH YEAH! There are only a few more chapters till the end to THIS book and start of the NEXT one! This is fresh off the press. Shiriter, you're gonna FLIP, and you too, Mysterious, cuz here comes... SKRITCH! For those of you who don't know who he is, read on and find out...

* * *

><p>Chapter 34<p>

It was a mystery as to why they were doing this in such a time when they needed to actually pay attention to Megamind's holowatch, which Eckere had hooked up to have a connection with her systems a while ago. They needed to watch and wait for the beeping if they were needed at the scene with Jhonny, but distractions… and instinctual feelings had gotten in the way.

Megamind hadn't so much as kissed her for so long it seemed, and he had thought what had happened last night was enough. Obviously it wasn't. Even though they had to catch up verbally, to solve this tension that was still between them for some reason, they were kissing.

Making out, actually. That was one peck on the lips led to, and the fact that they were completely alone.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, which was concealed in love, he knew he should stop. He knew he should just gently pull her away and calmly work as partners for now rather than being in love. But the instincts were showing themselves, and since Roxanne had been infused with those instincts as Megamind's girlfriend, she was unable to really resist as well.

The love-coated part of his mind argued tersely that they would still hear the beeping while they kissed. There was no noise except for the smack of their lips and the occasional stray moan that escaped their mouths.

Well, this showed no sign of stopping until they had both had their fill, or until his watch did go off. For now, Roxanne just sat partially in his lap, close to him, kissing furiously.

One hand was twisted up in her hair, and another gripped her hip firmly. Her hands were both at the back of his head, right to the back of his hypersensitive ears. Whenever her thumb brushed against them, sparks went off on his skin, and he gasped a little.

Ok, so far no contact from the Rebels. Nothing. Megamind was half in love right now and half antsy. That was not a good combination.

Something finally clicked after the half hour he hadn't done anything, and he gently pulled her from his lips. They stared at each other for a long time, now realizing what they had been doing.

"Uh…sorry…" Roxanne mumbled, blush dotting on her cheekbones.

"I think I passed these instincts over to you. That's why were were unable to stop… kissing." Megamind thought out loud. He was a bit afraid Roxanne would burst out saying she didn't want to have these primal alien instincts, that she wanted to be of her own free will, but she just stood up from the chair and remained calm as if nothing much had happened. She gave him a smile that said, "Oh, well." Megamind quietly breathed a sigh of relief.

He looked down to the face of his watch impatiently. No blinking, beeping, nothing, except the second hand ticking lazily along its way, finishing the minutes of the late afternoon. What was going on? What had they all done that made him and Roxanne unecessary to finish the task of killing Jhonny?

Had he gone down that fast?

There was a little more of an awkward silence that flooded the air until a spark of light appeared next to Roxanne , and she jumped back a little. As the light grew, she gave it space to expand, and then suddenly everyone except for one distinct person was back in the cottage.

"Where's Tigurr?" Megamind asked, then jumped up from his seat when he saw the state his sister was in. Her face was slightly bloody, streaked with dirt, and she was scratched all over. He cupped her delicate chin in his hand and looked into the bright rubies with sympathy until she pulled away gently with a watery smile that disappeared in a few seconds. Her brother looked on at her, baffled.

"Well!" The exotic alien beauty announced. "We are definitely running out of time now. If Jhonny's not dead by tonight, we're just going to go through him tomorrow."

"And leave Tigurr to just die?" Aidan cried incredulously, blowing away a piece of rumpled hair that had caught fire in his bewilderment. Kaiotia looked at the boy's scratch-marred face, slapping a hand over her mouth at her insensitivity that she had just let slip out aloud.

"I-I'm sorry", she mumbled. "Of course we're getting Tigurr back."

"What happened to him?" Roxanne demanded.

"Jhonny trapped him using some of the larger wolves", Megan explained. "Tigurr's stuck in a sort of storage space like Annabelle's until Jhonny draws him back out to literally bite a chunk out of him."

"How'd that happen?" Megamind asked, still a bit surprised at what his sister had blurted out a few moments ago. He didn't want to leave Tigurr for dead. He had barely gotten to know him, the only other surviving male of his race he had identified, and he couldn't just die! Preservation of Megamind's race was an important thing on his mind now that he knew there were multiple more survivors. He was not going to die; he didn't need to die. If anything, it was all Megamind.

"Jhonny summoned different-sized werewolves to help him fight with us, and three of the biggest ones closed in on Tigurr and trapped him. Kaitoia barely touched his finger before he just disappeared and the wolves dragged Jhonny away to who-knows-where", Annabelle said. Megamind blinked and the top of his lip hitched up a bit in surprise.

"Why can't Roxanne and I just go back right now and set Tigurr free? I can figure out a way."

"No, you can't, not unless you find the exact same wolves who trapped him and then make him reappear using them against their evil will. We wait until tonight, when Jhonny gets him back out to start eating him up, and that's when we save Tigurr and kill that little pesty fly", Vixen panted. She had come along with Kaitoia's group, and now her fur was ragged and there were some studs missing from her cat ears. She stumbled a bit until she braced herself on a barstool leg, and slowly slid down it, obviously tired.

Megamind tried to play out the scenario in his head. Well, for one, he'd make sure Tigurr was recovered no matter what. If for some reason it really, really couldn't be done, then he at least wanted to keep Jhonny from drinking even a drop of his blood. If Tigurr was gone, it would be a huge loss, since Megamind felt somehow attached to him, but still, the Earth needed dire attention at the same time.

Too bad they had to go back to waiting and watching for even more hours before planning their next move in this unpredictable game of chess. Who knew what Narcissa was brewing up with her little voodoo doctress accomplice… if they had deployed an assistant this stupid with only brawn to make up for it, then they must have had something they were on the brink of loosing upon Paris, and only needed a minor stalling to keep the head of the rebellion from interfering. This was bad, they needed to get past that obstacle _tonight._

Eckere stood quietly for the time being, acting if she were not dappled with saliva from the wolves and just the merest hint of someone's blood. Her eyes still shone a serious silver, but after a few seconds, they turned back to blue, and she looked at her arms, all dirtied from what she had been through. "So we just sit here, _again_, waiting and doing nothing?" Megamind asked Kaitoia since everyone else was dispersing to the rest of the house to try and clean up. He and his reporter girlfriend glanced at each other warily.

Now Kaitoia sighed and settled down in a chair in front of the two, pulling Megamind down on his chair with her. "Well… we have done this many, many times before, and it made others antsy too. As if Narcissa would start something underhanded while we were laying low. But I have been around here many times before, and Narcissa is so bloody confident of victory each time, setting traps and labyrinths, she only attacks when we're all about to anyway." She patted Megamind's upper arm with a smirk.

"That's actually kind of flaky, don't you think?" Roxanne commented aloud. "It's a little like the old Megamind; but does she actually call you over to fight with her like he did Metro Man?"

"It's not exactly like the latter, but she does initiate the wars at random times with a small attack,and then waits for a reaction. If there's no reaction on her time, then she just goes right ahead with the whole entire thing she's planned out, whether we're ready or not."

"And Megamind never did that, because he had no intentions of murder on his part. He was never really evil, I'm sure you know."

"And I'm glad he wasn't", Kaitoia remarked, giving her twin a quick, warm grin.

Roxanne leaned back in her seat and thought to herself for a moment before rising up and going upstairs.

Megamind seemed particularly interested in the neck of his staff, where the little slightly tarnished golden snakes spiraled around until they clutched at the orb, keeping it in place.

Why was everything so awkward around here sometimes?

* * *

><p>"He's the only one who can do it."<p>

"But Annabelle has the bow 'nd arrows. How will we r'place that?"

"I found a bow after scouring the house for the billionth time since you told me. He won't need arrows. Don't you still have that little sucking thing, whatever it's called?"

Eboni drew out a small burlap bag from her belt, and inside something thrashed erratically, making gnashing noises with what sounded like little teeth.

"Good." Aidan said. "You know, you are really… I dunno… a little crazy?"

"Ar'nt we all?" Eboni smirked. Inside she was decaying. Sure, she and Aidan had worked undercover a few times, going against the Rebel's plans only if it was for the better, but a real alliance had never been conducted between the two of them. Sure, they knew each other like any other Rebel, but there were no deep, really deep dark secrets they ever shared. If Eboni shared hers, she was dead before she could even right things, that was how fast the Rebels would turn on her. She wanted to keep that one saved for later, at the right time, which she knew was going to soon be upon her. As long as she was never caught in the act of what she was really doing, she'd be fine up until her moment.

"Ok", Aidan whispered. "You're sure we drugged everyone to sleep? Especially Kaitoia and Roxanne. If they sense he's missing, he'll be in trouble."

"Drugged t'sleep, all in bed, not gonna wake up 'till mornin'."

"Good. This will work. Is Megamind just sleeping with no—"

"Yes!" Eboni growled, rolling her eyes up to the ceiling.

"Then let's go wake him up before he falls into deep sleep."

Eboni nodded quickly, and then the unlikely duo ran down the hall and into the room where Megamind and Roxanne slept, one drugged until morning, and the other just beginning to drift off.

Aidan rushed nimbly into the room, and at once began to shake Megamind awake, jiggling him by the shoulder until he sat upright almost immediately.

"Ugh… what's… what's wrong?"

"Nothing much", Aidan grinned quickly and turned him around to face them. Megamind's glowing green eyes were lined with just the faintest tint of dark purple around the edges, probably from stress and not much sleep because of it.

As he rubbed his right one tiredly, the fireboy started to explain.

"Ok, so… you do know everyone planned to ambush Jhonny when he's about to eat Tigurr, right? And that time is about now, so—"

"Then why's everyone sleeping like babies?" Megamind cried out in surprise as he began to turn to Roxanne to wake her, but was stopped by both the young teens.

"Just a minute!" Aidan hissed, tugging the alien back to him and Eboni. "We need to explain something."

Megamind now looked more confused at the pair.

"You are the only one who can take down Jhonny, and unfortunately, you have to do it alone."

The blue man's brows pressed together in worry, and more of his sclera appeared as he realized how scary the prospect of that was.

"If we attack in this one big group, he'll just make it more trouble for us with werewolves and everything, and that will hold us back even longer, which is what he wants. He'll trap one of us and hold them hostage until we surrender, something like that, or worse, even."

Megamind glanced to the right unsurely. Inside his slightly discombobulated head, the gears of his superior brain began to forcedly turn and process what they were telling him. He had to rescue Tigurr alone, facing the creature with the most bloodlust he had ever seen. Easier said than done. Jhonny's lack of real brains made him seem easy to overcome, but his skill with weapons proved to be a hard thing to get around. Megamind knew inside he could probably do it, but the thought of going it alone in the middle of the night made him… nervous.

But he decided to do the right thing.

He licked his lips and said, "What do I need to do?"

Eboni drew the small burlap bag out from her belt. Megamind eyes it curiously until whatever was inside started to thrash and gnash. He blinked.

"What exactly is in there?"

"Eboni's last Addiku Sucklet. She was saving it for the right moment, and now we really do need it."

Addiku Sucklet… What was that? What did it look like?

Aidan picked up the bag from Eboni's hand, carefully opened the drawstring, and took the thing out.

It looked kind of like a tiny toilet plunger, except the suction-cup part of it was lined with sharp little teeth, and it seemed to be… breathing. Megamind's mouth hung slightly open as he observed it, fascinated. Aidan held it around the little "mouth", and then pulled on the tiny "handle" until it elongated to look like an…

"…Arrow", Megamind exclaimed softly. He had noticed Eboni had been holding a bow when she came in the room with Aidan. Putting two and two together, Megamind knew the basics of exactly what to do.

"You have to be really careful with this. If it latches onto a mammal, ot will suck you dry looking for any sign of traces of an Addiku inside you. Once you find Jhonny, pick the right moment to shoot him with this. Choose wisely. You'll have one shot he'll do everything to deflect."

Megamind nodded, understanding perfectly. Aidan kept explaining as he reached for his clothes sitting on the bedside table, putting them over his thin cotton.

"Now, this thing also senses thoughts. Once it shooots, it's open for sort of mental "requests" as to what you want the Addiku to turn into to reduce it. If you don't decide, the Addiku just turns into a regular, harmless human. But you can turn it into anything tame, and not especially monstrous. Once it lodges into the body, it'll do the work for you."

"Incredible…" Megamind mused as he latched on his protective vest. Now he couldn't wait to start. He was fully awake and ready to go. Ready to kill Jhonny at last! These were some truly amazing children.

Aidan made the long part of the Sucklet collapse back into an inch-long nub on the back of the suction cup, put it back in the bag, and handed it to Megamind. He clutched it around the drawstring carefully and then placed it safely in one of the leathery vest pockets. He was given the bow Aidan had found, and the two young Rebels gave him an encouaging smile Eboni's lips just barely tilting upwards.

"Am I really the only one who can do this?" Megamind aksed, insecurity bobbing up to the surface again. He looked out the window to the expanse of shriveled-up land that was illuminated by the round, yellowish moon. A small game of tug-of-war was happening inside him. He was afraid that Jhonny would tear him to a pulp, but not fully kill him just for Narcissa's sake. But that would probably mean he would get captured and tortured by her, which was unthinkable when he had come so close now to go back. On the other hand, there was an intense feeling he had that demanded he rescue Tigurr before he became a rotted carcass left on the ground after Jhonny finished with him. Jhonny would and could do that, and if he was not stopped, Megamind would just feel an emptiness, knowing that this other survivor of the planetary apocalypse had just been mauled up and there ws nothing he could do to stop it except cower from the source of the problem.

As he made these connections, he felt a positive side of him give him a dusting of confidence and energy. He did need to do it alone. Aidan and Eboni had said so, and they made sense, since an entire group would encumber the task when it was already hard enough.

He took a deep breath and turned back to those little scoundrels that ad assigned him to the job. He gave them a cocky look, his old self shining anew in his once-tired eyes.

"You've convinced me. I'm going out. Two are going to return."

* * *

><p>Little did he know it would be three.<p>

Tigurr burst out of whatver state he was in and sprawled on the ground. He looked up, frenzied to discover he was surrounded by the wolves that had trapped him in that alternate space hours before. It was nighttime now, and he highly doubted that he was being set free.

The wolves trotted off into the darkness. After a few seconds of slience, Tigurr scrambled to his feet only to feel an intense blow to his middle spine that knocked him over again. Rough, sharp fingertips rolled him over to face the sky, and what was in the way of it.

This night-terror once again. Jhonny Blue.

His face looked more captivatingly carnivorous than ever before. Tigurr felt a sting and the sizzle of his own skin on his cheek as a long, yellow, mucous rope of poison dripped down from Jhonny's wormlike tongue, gleaming with so much hunger for him he was drooling.

"I finally get to eat something, don't I!" He rasped as if he were choking on sandpaper. His face got closer and closer to Tigurr's, and so close that he smelt his positively acrid stinking breath, and the helpless catlet out a meek yowl.

"Don't worry little kitty-kitty, I'll make sure you enjoy every second of our _delicious_ rendenzvous!" He cooed in a dangerous tone. In the next second he had heaved the scared-stiff alien from the ground so he stood upright, and then he felt strong, clumsy arms envelop his wiry torso and seem to stroke it almost lovingly.

He tried to free his arms and kick, but he was restrained by the Addiku alone. His toes were getting crushed, rendering his feet immobile. The arms that petted him much too lovingly now locked around him and became solid as rocks if he struggled.

A low growl escaped Tigurr's mouth, which turned into an angry hiss.

"Oh, stop!" Jhonny cried as if he were a whiny toddler ruining a party. "Stop it! I'm sure you'll enjoy this as much as _I_ will…"

And then Tigurr felt something slimy and hot begin to creep up and around his neck; once, then twice it wrapped around him and coated his skin in something slimy and slightly burning. It was Jhonny's long, long tongue, and it slithered up higher and higher until the wriggling tip was just below Tigurr's lip.

"Let me go… please let me go…" It came out sounding much weaker than he intended. He was scared comepletely stiff. This monster had weapons galore, intense bloothrist, and Tigurr was his first real meal of his short little life.

His knees began to knock together, and although he tried to keep from doing it, his tail darted between his legs again out of instinct.

"Keep that heart fluttering just so", Jhonny whispered hoarsely, pressing a gloved, grubby hand to the left side of Tigurr's pounding chest. "Keep that burning blood rushing everywhere so I get just the right amount when I slice you open…"

The sharp, tarnished white claws attatched to his glove suddenly snapped down hard so it pinched the skin under Tigurr's clothes. He felt the sensation of warm liquid staining the inside of the fabric layers, and the intense sting that made him cry out in pain…

And something immediately taking the opportunity to bury inside his mouth.

He couldn't bite down on Jhonny's tongue. The taste of his saliva was vomit-inducing. He couldn't even breathe when it was briefly stuffed down his trachea, triggering a gag that did force bile up and out.

"Mmm…" Jhonny hummed, pleased. The slimy intruder slowly began to retract and unwind itself from Tigurr's neck to slip back into his own mouth. "I can't decide what part of you to eat first!"

He wrenched Tigurr's wrists together and then fastened then with some sort of brace that squeeezed them painfully, grinding the bones against each other.

He was kicked in the back of the knees and crumpled to the ground helplessly. With one sharp-toed foot, Jhonny stepped on his purple forhead and pushed it down to the ground, then loomed over his body and sat on his chest to get a better look at his petrified face.

"I'll start with the head, I suppose… but on the other hand, decapitating you will just ruin my fun."

His giant motheaten machete lined with rust materialized in his right hand, and he lowered the tip down to Tigurr's left cheek, smoothed over the soft, silky skin, and began to cut.

There was a hand over his mouth to silence him of him pained screams. Carefully, he notched the letter J in his skin with the cumbersome knife not meant for that purpose, but Jhonny was just too impatient to have a whole array of knifes for different occasions in front of him.

He removed the knife and let the wound bleed, squeezing out some droplets and lapping them up from his dirty palm. Delicious. Tigurr tasted delicious.

"Hmm…"

He moved lower on his victim's body until he straddled his calves, holding him in place by a forearm, and then The machete flew down to strike Tigurr's thigh.

It hurt. It hurt. IT HURT! Tigurr let out a yowl that caused ravens in the trees to flee. He struggled, but couldn't move under Jhonny's iron grip. The muscle had been sliced. Blood.

Jhonny grabbed at the bits of tissue that had fallen away and popped them in his mouth as if they were little grapes. He sighed at the taste. Rubbery and raw, just how he liked it.

"SSSSTOP!" Tigurr shouted, hissing ferally. He was going to lose blood fast if Jhonny tore at the large injury on his leg. Tigurr saw no way out of this, no way he could stop him.

Why wasn't anyone saving him, either? Were the Rebels just too… busy?

The thought made a pang go through him, and made his eyes prickle. Not even Megamind would want to save him? They were the last of the survivors from their planet. How could he-

Instead of him crying out in agony, it was Jhonny this time. Tigurr glimpsed his knife clatter to the dehydrated ground, and as he toppled over, revealing an arrow lodged firmly under his shoulderblade.

"Let him go."

"Megamind…"

The blue genius himself had appeared out of nowhere and had shot Jhonny just like that. Tigurr felt a rush of relief seeing him, knowing he would try his absolute best to finally kill that twisted demon…

But why was he alone? Where did he get the bow and arrow?

Jhonny was still down, trying to reach around to yank the arrowhead from his flesh, and Megamind took that opportunity to quickly lift Tigurr up and carry him to the safety of some nearby hedges were he lay moaning in agony, blood dripping to the ground and making it damp with dark ruby. Megamind lifted the cat's hand away to expose it coated in the stuff, and immediately he tried something quick that would stall the flow for the time being.

Remembering a short little spell, he pointed a finger at the wound and seared it quickly with a zap of heat that clogged up the broken vessels with a small enchantment that made the platelets assemble together in a matter of moments. There was the issue of blood poisoning, but this would have to do for now. Megamind had buisness to take care of.

"Stay here until I'm done", he warned in a rushed, serious tone. Tigurr nodded weakly, and then Megamind ran off to confront the Addiku and kill that menace once and for all.

"HARGH!"

The minute the blue man had emerged from the trees, there was the arrow he had shot before, spiraling back at him, at his face. He thought quickly and ducked in time, then wore a cocky, mischevious grin as he approached his opponent.

"One way or another, you are going to die tonight. I won't have it any other way. Plus you nearly made Tigurr go faint from blood loss."

From the straps tied to his back, he drew out his most trusted weapon; the Staff. He placed the bow in its place so he had the staff in both his hands.

"Ugly evil twin!" Jhonny spat. "Have you not seen my skill? You have next to nothing! I'll capture you and send you straight to Narcissa. I wish I could save you for dessert… but I guess the cat is enough."

"I say nothing at all is enough for you!"

They clashed. The resilient wood of the Staff ground against Jhonny's rusty and blood-coated machete with a high squeal that made ears ring. He was strong. So very strong. Megamind would have to make up for that with his underhanded tricks to stop him.

"Give up!" Jhonny growled. The machete flung Megamind's stick away, sending it skyward and headfirst into some sand where it landed with a muffled thump.

They lunged and fought for it. More than anything now Megamind wanted Tigurr's clawed gloves or Narcissa's fingernails. It was hard to stay away from the dirtied white talons grabbing at him like pincers and eating away at the fabric of his clothes.

Megamind rolled over on his back and then used his leg muscles to heave the cannibal off of him, gaining his precious Staff in the process.

He stood up.

"Earth!"

And then the pile of sand was picked up covered in a shroud of magic and flug itself to Jhonny where it plumed in the air and he hacked out three throat-shredding had sand all over, adhering to his sticky body and getting in the small cuts he had on there. His eyes were red and puffy, the green pupils shrunken.

"My god you are so annoying!"

Jhonny made a lightning fast move that turned skin on Megamind's forearm to ribbons as he slashed it with those thorny talons. He cried out in pain, but tried to ignore the burning and jumped at him, bowling him over to pin the arms to the ground with his small knees and hold his chin up high with the ord of the Staff so his head was glued to the ground.

"You know, I brought something special for you tonight…" Megamind purred in a dangerous tone. His grin was reminiscent of his old, brooding smile he used on Ms. Ritchi, his kidnappee, the one he flirted with while he bantered and explained his nefarious plan. But now matters were more serious, and he was staring straight into the bloodshot eyes of a monster, about to kill him when…

A saber shout out of nowhere. The muscular arm came free from the hold of Megamind's leg and nearly chopped off his face when he raised the wooden weapon at the very last moment so it struck the maple, just banged his nose a bit, but then he got an idea.

He pretended to stand up and stumble in agony, clutching his face as if Jhonny had really hit his target. The murderer's face brightened.

"Well well well, this turned out to be easier than I thought!" he proclaimed, swaggering over to Megamind, feigning injury. "Let's see where I hit…"

The slim alien whipped around and stabbed him in the stomach with the butt of the Staff, sending him to the ground again. "Gotcha!"

He held him down by stepping on both his feet with all his weight, and before he had a chance to kick, Megamind was fumbling for the Suckelt. It was time for Jhonny to just die. He drew the little thign from the burlap bag and made it elongate into an arrow.

He hit the ground and this time Jhonny rose up again, his face contorted in rage…

Until that Sucklet hit him right in the chest.

"Finally!" Megamind crowed. "This fight was starting to get monotonous."

He scrambled out from under Jhonny, who had begun to look like he was having a seizure. He thrashed on the ground, belting out an ear-piercing screech that sounded like a dying bird. While he thrashed in the twisted dance, Megamind remembered to try and think about what Jhonny should turn into now.

Too many possibilities were out there! He could be an ant for all he cared, but why was he being so choosy? What did her want? Time looked about to run out. The Sucklet made horrible squelching noises as it began to bulge with some kind of fluid it was feeding off of inside Jhonny, whatever it was. Something else was happening as well. Green liquid was streaming out his mouth in erratic gushes, and then lifting away and drifting off to the west side of the garden. And as he kept coughing and coughing…

Megamind felt something click in his ears. His last random thought had been…

"Oh… no, wait, NO!"

But he couldn't change what he had done. His last thought recurring through his mind had been…

Blue.

With a last dying scream, Jhonny began to give off a white glow that surrounded him like an aura. The light expanded and expanded around him until it became to bright for Megamind's eyes. He heard a vague ringing sound.

Then the light deflated with a last little sigh as if it were worn out.

Megamind kept his back to the life that lay crumpled on the ground, so new, but he didn't want to look at it. Was it a mistake? Or was it a good thing that he had turned Jhonny into… this?

He couldn't just leave it there. He knew that for sure. Why, why, why had he clung onto that last thought? He could've turned Jhonny into a rabbit… or a harmless human…

What would he have done with a human? Leave it here?

Ok. He needed to see what it looked like.

He turned around with a tight feeling in his stomach at what he was about to see.

The form was curled up on the ground, deathly silent. Were it not for the fact that the small chest was moving ever so slightly, Megamind would have thought he were downright dead. He was breathing short, erratic breaths as if he were terrified.

And in the dim moonlight, Megamind could see that the skin was indeed a wonderful shade of brand-new sky at sunrise.

In a sort of trance, he dropped to his knees and placed a hand on the new alien's shoulder, which had subtle musculature like Jhonny had. It was a little more bulk than Megamind had, but definitely not unattractive. The figure sprawled out on the ground gave a low, quiet grunt.

Then he moved.

With one arm he tried to lift himself up from the ground, but it shuddered terribly and he fell back. Megamind found the courage to roll him over on his back, and then stared into his face.

His eyes were lidded and tired, but glowed a bright shade of deep sapphire like Megan'scolor eyes. The skin was such a pale, pastel blue, it looked like cake frosting. On his pointed chin was a goatee finely shaped into a concave point which had a smaller, triangular patch of black hair right above it. They seemed to point directly to his mouth, as if instructing anyone to kiss him.

The alien stared wide-eyed at Megamind. Both were amazed at each other. Puzzle pieces currently scrambled together in his head for the billionth time, connecting how he had first taken that potion that had induced the formation of an Addiku inside him…

Essentially, he had just created asexual offspring.

The realization made him gasp a little and his eyes widen. Did this mean… but…

He could only manage a small, "Hello."

The alien seemed to want to reply, but instead coughed up the green liquid from before. And held a hand to his throat, making a cut signal across it.

"You can't speak", Megamind stated. He stole an unsure glance at the hedges where he realized with a pang of guilt that that was where Tigurr was lying, wriggling in agony. He'd have to lead this new alien to the house and explain to everyone in the morning, or once Tigurr was healed.

With slight disgust, he removed Jhonny's gloves which had stayed on his body along with the rest of his grimy, bloody outfit. They were much too big for him. Megamind observed his torso quickly, finding that it was actually maybe a bit skinnier than his own, except his hips flared out noticeably. The transition was smooth, but different…

"Wait here for a minute."

Megamind couldn't let Tigurr be in this much pain any more than he could abandon the new alien. He got up and made his way to the hedge, where he had a hand over his severe wound, He was trying to heal it on his own. He could only heal wounds when the blood stopped flowing, but even then he could only fully heal small ones in a few moments. This was going to take much longer.

"But what if you get infected? You can't close it now", Megamind said, reluctantly taking a closer look at the leg of his pants, which he had ripped apart a bit so he could get a proper angle at the knife cut.

He lifted his hand away to look at it better. It was a quarter of the way closed.

"The magic sanitizes poisons, too. There could have been tetanus on the knife, I agree. Did you kill that thing?"

Megamind looked to the left awkwardly. "You had better see this…"

Tigurr narrowed his eyes and gestured to his leg.

"Oh, of course…"

The blue hero helped Tigurr stand up and he slung an arm over his shoulder as he limped with him at his pace, wincing at the pain in his thigh.

"Can you keep up?" Megamind asked.

"Sure."

They hobbled out of the shrubbery to the just-created life sitting patiently outside, having taken off the clawed boots and belt and knifestraps and keeping on the pants, which were his only choice of covering.

Tigurr was stunned.

"What the _hell_ did you do?" He squeaked incredulously.

"Eboni gave me… this thing that… and I… I'll tell you when we get back. Your wound needs attention." Megamind turned to the alien and held out a hand to help him up. He grasped it and stood on his feet using his other hand to hold up the too-big leather pants.

Megamind sighed heavily.

"Sleep will never come now."

The three aliens trudged off into the night.

* * *

><p>SCENE! OUCH! Tigurr got his leg CHOPPED! At least it was not amputated... be glad I didn't AMPUTATE IT! Skritch cannot talk for the time being... HAHA I TRICKED YOU :U I actually found this chapter a little... IDK... boring? Hmm. Well, the ending was a little bit rushed... IDK I was bored. I just made a cruddy webcame video with my only two LPS dolls just now :D<p>

OK BYE. Until the next chapter my friends!


	35. Chapter 35

HIYA! This was a long chapter! And for no apperent reason I will point out that I have been listening to Halloweenish songs for some reason... OH WELL. It's mood-setting for the anticipation building up to... THE NEXT BOOK! There is only one chapter left of Bleu Leather! D: That makes it sound like the whole thing is over or something...

WELL! Thanks to the few of you who have stuck to this story, and the people that read and DON'T REVIEW. :I And thanks to Mysterious and Shiriter for being rabid fangirls of this story! For them, who have stuck on this ride from the beginning, keep reading, there is much more Megamind in the future! And for those of you who have just unearthed this story, read also! And enjoy :) A comment makes my day, you know!

Okay! So the final chapter will be VERY long, so don't get impatient. I need to make it a good finale... to the first part! And then comes the much-awaited second book, Dining Tabkes Tacked to Ferris Wheels. Got a bumch of horror, drama, and romance. Will leave you guessing at every turn. I promise, it will have a MUCH more attractive beginning than this story...

AH! I'm ranting! Go on, read! That's what you came here for, of course X[

* * *

><p>Chapter 35<p>

The sink was coated in the green slime the alien had coughed up, and in the corner sat Tigurr with his sliced leg, still in the healing process, and hurting as much as ever. Megamind had to be a sort of nurse now, now that the whole rest of the house was asleep. He didn't quite feel like explaining the newest addition of alien to the already huge entourage of Rebels, and the family of remaining ones that resembled Megamind. He didn't even know if he was a proper species! He had been transformed… he was still an Addiku,wasn't he?

Aidan had said the effects of this were irreversible. If the Addiku had been reversible, then that meant that this alien he had just created out of thin air was not changeable anymore. He was an official member of the species just as much as Tigurr and Kaitoia were.

That was one more person he had to strive to take care of.

It was a handful, but worth it to preserve what was left of his heritage, even if the latest addition appeared in an… odd way. There was just something unnatural about a person being born into the world as an adult rather than an infant. Megamind guessed he was around his own age. That was thirty-two years of his life that would never exist. No childhood, nothing. Something about that was just harrowing to even think about.

He coughed up more of the liquid. Megamind continued to wash away the small wound in his back from the Sucklet, which he had tossed out the window like a piece of trash, where it had exploded into putrid-looking stuff that resembled vomit in every way. At least what he was coughing up was not any of that, or blood. He had a lot in there!

Before they had set up this little infirmary in the bathroom, it had taken three tries for Megamind to figure out through gesticulations that he could in fact talk after he got all the slime out. How long was that going to even take?

A muffled moan came from the corner of the bathroom, signaling that Tigurr was now uncomfortable in his position. Megamind nearly growled in frustration.

"You two will be the death of me yet", he muttered. He lifted the injured leg carefully up out of the empty bathtub and set it down on the floor now. No bleeding. The wound was three-quarters closed. After it closed completely, he'd need stitches in the morning.

And then the hacking, coughing fit came from the counter once again where a new stream of slime escaped the new alien's mouth and spattered into the porcelain. If he kept coughing like this, the vein in his forehead would pop! Or his eyeballs. Either way, something was going to get injured. Amazing how no blood had been purged—not even a little spray of it.

Megamind had had enough of the noise. He helped him by hitting his back with the heel of his hand, and the gushing of the snotty matter increased. His head rocketed in and out of the sink in a way sure to give him whiplash, and then…

"MY NAME'S SKRITCH!"

Megamind and Tigurr stood there, stupefied for a moment. He was finally done!

"What?" Megamind breathed.

"My name's Skritch", he repeated. "I just decided. I'm not Jhonny anymore."

His voice was deep and smooth with a vague lilting accent of some sort. He took a moment to collect himself and wipe the remnants of the slime from his mouth before sliding to the floor tiredly.

"Rgh…"

Megamind didn't know what to do. Unless the knowledge Jhonny had recived about the rebellion and all had been transferred into… Skrtich's brain, then there was yet another obstacle to get through. Explaining to both everyone else and him would take hours. A day, even. And they had no time to waste, now that the vicious monster had been reduced to this, a new life that could not turn to evil like Jhonny. From the knowledged that he had gathered from the moment this insane roller-coaster started, he did know that basics of what and what no to do, but all that started to get a little… hazy. There were times when the whole thing simply became too much even for Megamind to get a grip on, and he had to unwind himself just for a little. Force shut down the overload to his mentality.

For now, no thinking about demons. No thinking about Minion. No Narcissa, no blood, no war, not even the plane trip that had started it all.

He pressed the off switch and just stared into space for the time being.

As he scrutinized interesting cracks in the ceiling, only vague other things went through his tranquilized mind. He did love Roxanne a lot. Eboni seemed a bit mysterious. Aidan too. It felt good to know a long-lost sibling. He had two other members of his race, now practically family, and he felt responsible for them both now.

But he did not go deep into any true detail for fear of his trance ending too soon.

He needed to relax…

Relax…

* * *

><p>Cold water.<p>

He was dripping in ice cold water, which jolted him awake from the moment it was turned on his unprotected, bald head, hitting it with a tremendous splash that nearly made him suck the liquid down his trachea when he gasped a shuddery gasp from the shock.

Then he blinked twice and looked up at the disapproving faces that surrounded him.

"Mind explaining a bit, Mr. Sleepyhead?" Megan said in a calm, dangerous, parental tone, balancing the bucket in her left hand as she waited and the others shot mostly daggers from their eyes, while a few just looked baffled.

Megamind swallowed. He had fallen asleep! He had allowed himself to nod off at the bathroom counter where he had just been trying to clear his mind, and had gotten so wrapped up in it, he had just simply… _zonked out._ No wonder. The events of last night had been a workout, and just simply… harrowing. Plus, dealing with the Tigurr and his leg, and getting Skritch to talk at last by purging the slime from inside him… Megamind honestly felt a bit sick from a morning sort of effect.

He gulped thickly and glanced at the paler alien standing in the doorway, his arms crossed and his eyes… slathered to the brim in black, black makeup that shone like Vaseline. Where had he gotten that from?

"I should probably start with where I found Skritch here, shouldn't I?" Megamind laughed a sheepish laugh as a lilac spread across his face gradually.

"You got it", Kaitoia almost guffawed. She knelt down to her sopping wet sibling to assist him in getting up from his scoliosis-inducing position on the floor. Annabelle snapped her fingers with another exhausted chortle, and he was dry at once.

Skritch screwed his lips to the side of his face when he was led to sit on the bed in the room with Megamind next to him. He played with a loose thread on his cloudsprite-issued clothes while the ex-villian began to explain as best as he could.

"Well… has he said anything to you?"

"Wouldn't stop acting weird around Tigurr. He's a strange little dude…" Kaitoia said, eyeing him warily, where he gave her a flirty smirk in return. She drew back from him at that.

"And I'm sure Tigurr couldn't explain?" Megamind sighed.

"He got his leg half chopped off!" Aidan exclaimed. "And he said you put him behind a bush for the whole time."

"I needed to keep him out of Jhonny's sight!" the blue man countered, confused as to why anyone would be angry about that. At least he hadn't allowed him to bleed to death.

"And where's Jhonny now?" Megan asked quite rhetorically. She took a step to the not-very-alert alien with pale skin. "He just turned into this guy? One of you? How do you know that's not a very clever but typical decoy by Narcissa? When you transformed him, he just _seemed_ like he turned into something tamer, and you bought it because you want to preserve the last of your race that inhabits Earth. You are not real!"

Skritch and the leader of Rebels were nose to nose now, and Skritch reclined on the bed as he tried to inch away from her gaze.

"Relax already", Skritch chided. "Megamind shot an Addiku Sucklet at me."

The whole room resounded with shocked gasps, and for a minute Megamind panicked that Skritch had said something really wrong.

But the gasps were at Eboni.

All eyes were glued on her. "You used your last one?" Annabelle seemed to be a little bewildered.

"Yeah. H' needed it. Didn't all o' ya wanna kill Jhonny in th' first place?"

"Well… of course, but you could have told us for cheese sake!" Megan complained.

"'Cheese'?" Skritch almost snorted.

"Shut up wise guy, I can say whatever I want", she shot back, disgruntled and tired for any horseplay.

"So you used the Sucklet to… why did you want another one of you?" Aidan inquired.

"I'm sorry if it's a cumbersome addition to the whole entourage we have!" Megamind tried to amend. "But all these thoughts were going through my head and… I was real tired because Eboni and Aidan—"

Megamind quit talking when the whole group began to gape and point at the ceiling as if something astronomical had happened up there.

And something _had_ happened.

How could Skritch walk upside down much less get up there without being seen?

He paced up there with no care in the world. "Not such a cumbersome additon now, am I?" Everyone automatically shook their heads in harmony.

"Yeah, you'll barely notice I'm even here." In the next moment Skritch was back on the bed curled up in a… weird… position.

"I'm saving questions about that for later", Kaitoia said. "What was it you said about Aidan and Eboni?"

Megan seemed to flinch for some unknown reason, but Aidan and Eboni looked like two toddlers who had just gotten found out that they stole from the cookie jar. What had he said that was wrong now?

"Ahem… um… they came to me in the middle of the night and said I had to kill Jhonny and get Tigurr by myself without any of your help."

"Really?" Megan asked as if she were the disappointed parent. There was an awkward silence she had planned to construct herself so that Megamind could fill in the silence for her.

"And they-Eboni and Aidan-gave me the Sucklet and a bow since the Sucklet can be shot like an arrow. But they told me that I had to do it alone because too many of us would make it worse to fight. Jhonny could capure another one of us and hold us off for far longer."

He stole an uncertain glance at the two wide-eyed culprits, who silently begged him not to elaborate too much. He probably shouldn't mention the sleeping drug.

Megan sat them both down on the bed, getting filled up with the four people sitting on it now, only three of them really talking.

"Mind telling a bit more? Eboni and Aidan I mean", Megan said.

They were quiet before Aidan began to talk.

"Ok. Fine. Me and Eboni decided together. Nothing against you guys, but we sort of knew Megamind was the only one capable of really getting Jhonny good. And don't you agree that even more people would have been a little too much? During battle, I mean. We'd never make it past the wolves if he summoned them. He didn't need wolves with only one person attacking, and he was also really preoccupied with eating Tigurr for dinner so what sense would it have made for the whole house to wake up?"

"But Syx could have gotten killed", Kaitoia protested, actually looking a bit hurt in her ruby eyes. "You could have at least woken me up so I could go with him!"

"And", Roxanne added, "You should've woken me too. If I had woken up by myself in the middle of the night and Megamind wasn't there, I would have panicked and expected the worst. That's not abnormal to expect around here. I could have gotten _advised _about it!"

"Ok, stop throwing the blame around me. Eboni and I did it for a good reason. Even if one other person had tagged along, the wolves would have appeared like earlier today when Tigurr and Eboni went in to kill Jhonny. Megamind was the only one I sensed with true anger at Jhonny; true determination, and paired with his newfound archery skills, he fit the bill alright!"

"Ok…" Kaitoia said. She tapped her chin for a moment before proceeding.

"But I probably would have woken up and felt that Megamind was far away from the house. How come I _didn't_ wake up?"

Eboni and Aidan were adamant about keeping the sleeping drug a secret. "Well, you prob'ly can't sense abs'lutely _ev'rything_ he does 'nd ev'ry move he makes."

"Hmph."

"Ok, so are we all clear about what happened last night?" Aidan asked.

"NO!" the room replied.

"Exactly what I thought."

Megamind's head swiveled to look behind himself where Skritch lay on the bed, except he wasn't there. Well, he was right about them not even knowing he was there. He could rob someone blind with this stealth, which would prove to come in handy.

Megamind felt hands grabbing at his feet from under the bed as if trying to pull him under.

"Ugh… Kaitoia was right; you are strange…"

A smug chuckle came from beneath the furniture, and Megamind was not hesitant to let his jaw go a little slack when Skritch appeared from under the bed, zipping out from the small fabric strip that lined the bottom of it… and he looked like he was floating a little when he set himself back on the mattress in one fluent motion.

"We'll all question that later", Megan said after a while of staring at Skritch.

"For now, we'll make some breakfast from the rations Annabelle hunted down some time ago she has saved in he storage space…"

* * *

><p>After breakfast, the late morning was spent with the more important Rebels making phone calls and holographic calls to other parts of their rebellion with Eckere-issued technology. Since Skritch was basically going to be another honorary Rebel like Tigurr, he had received his own communicator like the rest had, and in no time, he learned how to use it perfectly. (Tigurr's communicator was on low battery because of that.)<p>

Megamind liked Skritch and all, but he was weird. Very weird. To Tigurr in particular.

Hmph…

Megan had reminded everyone very strongly that they would not be staying cooped up in the house for much longer now that Jhonny was basically gone, and Narcissa felt closer upon them than ever. She just needed to make a couple more connections with new additions that had been accumulated into duty by the Dissent, and then they'd be on their way to an even more special place, she had said.

Megamind had wondered where that could possibly be. Wasn't there, like… not _supposed_ to be any places remotely special in this joint unless Narcissa was being sarcastic?

Megan had insisted that where they were going would stay a surprise until they got there, but it was a good surprise nonetheless. There was no better option than to trust her at the moment.

So while they waited, only being a little ansty, all four aliens in the house plus Roxanne were grouped together just to make small talk until they departed.

Plus, being all in one place made it possible for Skritch not to make all these weird calls to Tigurr…

Megamind sat inbetween his sister and girlfriend while Tigurr took a seat next to Kaitoia and Skritch between Roxanne and him. The purple alien looked less than enthralled to be sitting next to… him. Vixen was napping in her mistress's lap.

The intended goal of small talk was changed when Skritch began to tap his fingers together and little sparks radiated from them and jumped onto other fingers.

"Curiosity is now better than me, Skritch", Megamind finally said. "How are you doing that? What is this power you seem to have?"

The alien looked up from his experimantation, where the sparks seized to radiate from his hands. He placed them at his sides and gripped onto the seat of his chair.

"Even I don't really know. I think I have something to do with manipulating electromagnetic waves, not just electricity… I've been testing it out and it's pretty cool."

Electromagnetism.

Kaitoia jumped at the opportunity to speak up.

"Pretty cool?" she parroted. "Manipulating electromagnetism is _powerful._ How'd you get the ability, anyway?"

She turned to her brother.

"Syx, do you have any idea?"

"Um, no", Megamind said truthfully. "Eboni and Aidan never said anything about the Addiku getting mutated in a way after transformation."

"I'm not mutated", Skritch piped up. "I'm awesome."

"Yeah…" Tigurr mumbled, rolling his mismatched eyes.

"Well, YEAH it's pretty awesome to be able to do that", Kaitoia said. "You could manipulate energy waves in the air. You could _fly._"

"I can also control gravity around me. Probably could also make a sonic boom if I fly fast enough."

Skritch had the attention of everyone now, even if he was sounding extremely unenthusiastic as if he'd been making sonic booms for years when this was basically the first day of his new life.

"I don't think you realize just how important you could be to us", Kaitoia said at last.

"I do realize", she suddenly heard whispered in her ear. She turned around, and sure enough Skritch was there with his elven little face grinning in her ear except when Megamind hastily shoved him away from her. He was disliking his queer essence more and more every minute. First he was there, then here, then molesting someone, then being scarily quiet… Megamind just hoped he wouldn't turn around and remember some drive he had from his recent past that would cause him to go back to…

The scenario seemed so possible, he had no choice but to ask.

"Skritch, sit down!" Megamind said, his eyes briefly widening as he grabbed the alien in a little shroud of magic from the Staff that carried him back over to his seat and plopped him in.

"What did I do?" he asked as if he were an innocecnt little schoolboy, and for a second Megamind actually softened from the sappy face he gave him. He shook his head and scrunched his eyes shut.

"I just need to ask you something…"

"What might that be?" asked Skritch in a voice of silk.

"It's just that I'm assuming everyone is wondering this as well… but… you were a bloodlustful and very insane monster last night until I turned you into what you are now. I'm just making sure—"

"—That I won't have some deep-in-conscious realization that will revert me back to cannibalism and an alliance with Narcissa? That I won't string Tigurr's organs on a party garland? Don't even think about it", he finished for him. "That's all behind me. The very thought of tearing a stomach open makes me want to vomit at the mental image." He turned his nose up prudently as he spoke, proving his point.

"You're sure?" Tigurr asked. He really didn't want to be fooled again. He was already inching way,way away from the alien and a little too much towards Kaitoia.

"Yesssssssss." Skritch drew out the s and bared his teeth while he did as if to show Tigurr he didn't even have the saws in his gums anymore. His teeth were as white and pristine as anyone else's teeth in the room.

"See what I mean?" the purple cat said anyway. "Weird!"

"Augh, quit your whining…" Vixen finally got out. She had been trying to rest up as much as she could for what was to come. "I need the energy… real cats sleep more than you lot do…"

The smooth little feline settled back down, and Kaitoia resumed petting her satin for fur.

Skritch righted his chair. "So where is Megan taking us later?"

"Wouldn't say", Roxanne finally joined conversation, "but she did say it would be a lot less miserable than in here. Only one water tap works."

"I think I know where we're going…" Kaitoia mused to herself. A slight smile broke apart on her purplish lips, showing exceitement."

"Could you at least tell _me_ where?" Megamind pleaded.

"Nope. Surprise, just as she said."

Her brother pouted a bit and sat back down.

Soon, everyone glimpsed the fearful look on Tigurr's face that had suddenly materialized.

"What if Narcissa strikes… like… when we're out? Wherever we're going later on sounds a little more recreational than war-related."

"Tigurr, you've never really worked alongside us in the past. Megan is very trustworthy. Plus, I said before, I think I know where we'll be off to soon, and it's Narcissa-proofed alright", Kaitoia said. She threw him a grin that caused the annoyance at Skritch to fade and be replaced with a little skip of his heart.

Well… there were a few certain reasons other than he wanted to be significant that he wanted to join this group. _That_ was one of them. He could survive a little Skritch to get more Kaitoia, even if he needed to make it less detectable to Megamind, who intimidated him… seemed like the protective type.

"Then I can't wait for whatever it is", Megamind said in earnest. He planted the Staff of the ground and leaned on the orb, absentmindedly swaying it from side to side.

"We're going to be here a _while_, so while we're at it, what about some Truth or Dare?" Skritch suggested with a sly little wink in Tigurr's direction, which made him jump out of his seat so that it fell completely backwards with an enormous clatter.

"_No._ Nononononono…" he babbled while Skritch snickered at his victory of this reaction.

"Anyone else?" the pale alien asked as he examined his nails.

"NEVER."

"Nope."

"You're weird…"

* * *

><p>Good. Plans had been made. Little fluctutations in anything had been righted. They had a larger chance than ever of succeeding once and for all, over all the past rebellions that had ever existed. That would mean that Narcissa would show herself with something bigger, flashier, even more terrifying than the last time, and they were all prepared. The Retaliation had done such a nice job gathering classified information, it made Megan swell with pride at their competence. And now that the Dissent, and wayward other creatures not yet under rapture of Narcissa's dark side, had made up actual <em>armies<em> all prepped and ready to go? Oh yes. Yes. They'd been building up those troops for a long time. They'd been plotting. They'd been scrutinizing every suspicious move that suggested a traitor, and so far everything was as spotlessly perfect as a new crystal wineglass with not a single fingerprint on it.

And at the bottom of the glass, Megan saw nothing but victory reflecting her face in every faultless facet, and if she held it up to the light, even more so could she adimire the colorful rainbows of utter triumph flashing against the walls.

A hologram of one of her fellow little outlaws diminished, and whom she found behind it made her blood pump a little faster, though she told it not to, for that was what it always did when he was around. Sped up her circulation when it wasn't needed.

"Why hello", Megan said as politely as she could muster. It helped that she was in a pleasant mood at the moment, otherwise she would have tried to ignore him.

"Hey Meg", Aidan said with an equally polite smirk. He was inwardly hoping she wouldn't turn her nose up at him for the billionth time since they had started getting into visiting each other's realms. She always did that so vigorously; a little too vigorously as if she liked to ignore him. Hmph. This had always made Aidan wonder… about if she…

No. She made it clear, but still… he could never be sure. He still couldn't believe his telepathy skills would only come when he turned into as young adult, and that was only a few years from now, if he ever lived until then. Those would have sure come in handy about two or three years ago.

"We going soon?" he asked with a light air, as if he could care less, which was the usual tone he stuck to when talking to her, even though it made him seem passive and bored with everything. He didn't have the courage to put emotion on his voice for fear of screwing that up. The voices of old enemies back at home in his inferno of a small town still rang in his head. The ones that never let him have peace. The ones that would stop at nothing to bring his confidence down…

"Yeah. Soon", Megan said as she pocketed her communicator and tried looking elsewhere. Looking elsewhere at a cracked and chipped house was so hard when there was something much more interesting trying to get her attention… even if she acted like she didn't want it.

Aidan couldn't stand it.

"Why don't you like to talk to me?"

If Megan had been up the stairs in time she could have avoided him. But questions didn't go unanswered.

She sighed with her back to him and frowned.

"I just… well… you're so—"

"-Different?" Aidan helped her along with her description. "Rude? Immature? Annoying? Maybe even infuriating?"

"Ok, don't even go there, mister", Megan snapped as she whipped back around. "Now you're just basing yourself off of what the others back at your home called you for all those years. How do you think that's what _I_ think of you?"

"Infernoi can be judgemental."

"Exactly. There you go. Answered your own question. Happy?"

The broken fairy stalked up the stairs, hissing through her teeth silently in anger. Aidan felt like ramming his head into the peeling wall behind him. Again. He had done in again. Him and his _insecurity_. How convenient that feeling always was. He'd even been led to believe in all those things the tormentors back home had called him. He'd never admit it, or get _her_ to admit for that matter. She didn't talk to him alone, That was that. They'd been drifting apart like this for years. Aidan was nauseated by it. By her brusqueness and insensitivity.

So why exactly was he in love with her?

That was a big mystery. He didn't want to keep up the 'I still love you even though you hate me' habit for much longer before he had to decide whether he liked her or not.

Same went for Megan, the fairy in question.

She herself went stomping up the stairs, but the hard footfalls became softer as she became less huffy and more disappointed. Unecessary rudeness was nearly inevitable for her to posess… but what Aidan had just blurted out had sounded plain childish. Repetition of what he hated to be labeled as. He was just so self-conscious sometimes! It was annoying… yet Megan was still…

She grumbled long and exasperated at her own thoughts just as Annabelle and Eckere burst out of the room she was about to enter, their faces slightly awed. Megan raised a thin eyebrow.

"Skritch can manipulate electromagnetic waves!" Eckere squealed, bouncing up and down giddily.

"Um…" Megan said. She turned to her friend. "What?"

"I don't know how, and not even Eboni knows, but it might have been a good side affect from the Sucklet. Look!"

Annabelle tugged the Rebel's leader inside the room where the adults had been lounging, and pointed to a very important figure hovering near the ceiling. This time, Skritch seemed to take just the slightest bit more interest in this new ability, since his lips were slightly parted in wonder, and you could see less of his makeup on his eyes.

Megan planted her hands on her hips. "Nice! Manipulating electromagnetism… that'll be a big help."

"And less weight on your shoulders now that we have… I think… eleven people in this entourage. You won't even notice I'm here."

"Eleven?" Megan repeated incredulously. Her gloved hand flew to her forehead in disbelief. "Hmm… we need to do something about that…"

"Already?" Vixen exclaimed as if she were concerned.

"An entourage this big is sure to be noticed by something evil patrolling this place. It's just too daunting to carry a crew this big. Besides, it looks a little… odd to have several people at once walking in this enormous cluster stumbling everywhere they go, right?"

"I guess so… and?" Skritch said, floating back down to the ground.

"It's imperative that we split up after we go to where I'm taking us later tonight. I'm deciding that the younger memebers will cluster together, and then the adults will be led by Kaitoia. Sound fair?"

"No", Skritch rang out just to be obnoxious.

"Newbie!" Megan snapped after her had finished snickering to himself. "No jokes. Do I make that clear?"

Skritch was at the point of trying her patience by declining again, but the venomous look in her translucent sapphires warned him gravely not to do so.

"Yeah."

"Good. Now, I bet a certain couple of you are wondering where exactly I'm taking all of us?"

Megamind and Roxanne offered their hands.

Megan took a deep breath. "Well, it's somewhere where you need to clean up for them to let you in. Okay? So… all guys, out of the house, take some towels and some clothes from Annabelle and literally jump in the lake for a spell, would you?"

"Why me?" Skritch asked indignantly without thinking.

Megan gave him a fed up look. "Mostly you have to take a bath because you still smell like blood even though you got new clothes that I suppose you can wear again… but I keep thinking Jhonny Blue's still in here when I get a whiff of you."

Skritch growled a little to himself.

"Okay, so you guys just inform Aidan, and return as fast as you can. The hike is not too long to the cove", Annabelle explained as she handed some of the men new clothes and towels, and handed Megamind Aidan's new set to give to him once they got downstairs. Before they were corraled out the room, he threw a slightly amused grin over his shoulder and silently waved a small goodbye to Roxanne. She waved back.

They filed down the steps and were soon out the door, where Eboni saluted to them from the roof where she was standing guard.

Now to get clean.

* * *

><p>Discarded clothes littered the ground while the new clothes stayed in piles near the rocks where their waiting towels were, and three out of fours guys were floating in the clear water already, egging the leftover one on to just <em>get in<em>.

"Um, not yet", Tigurr mumbled shyly behind the safety of a tree trunk. He'd already been there for about ten whole minutes, refusing to get in, even when Aidan shrank back to bathe alone when he had claimed things got 'real awkward.'

"We're all the same species, you know", Megamind sighed, even though he'd been the third one in.

"Is it because you shed?" Skritch asked randomly.

Tigurr sounded offended when he screamed, "No! God no! You know what I have to do every two months? CUT the fur off so I don't look Persian! I have HUMAN hair growing out of my butt! Not to mention that inevitable yearly shedding that clashes… and when I get angry—oh forget it! I'm coming in."

The purple alien whirled around with impossible speed and all at once used his feline-strength muscles to dive in, causing white water to spray on Megamind and Skritch until he surfaced, his face dripping in the cool water. He looked up at the sky distainfully.

"At least the overcast is not as severe today… "

Skritch cut through the water just as Tigurr turned back around to face his fellow aliens, and suddenly they were nose to nose, and the cat absolutely whimpered.

A wave of the water came crashing in his face and up his nose.

"Real nice…" he sputtered after he had snorted it out.

An even bigger splash hit the pale blue alien in the back, slamming him headfirst underwater comically as if he'd been punched. Tigurr looked up curiously and saw Megamind blow a little smoke away from his hand as if he'd just shot a pistol. His expression was smug, while Skritch's was annoyed when he popped back up.

At first they were confused as to why he was making his finger touch down so slowly to the water as if he could make it explode with one touch, but then they all remembered.

"NO!"

"STOP!"

But then electricity jolted up Megamind's spine and made him spasm in a hyperactive dance for seveal seconds, and Aidan cry out from further away before Skritch cut the power and drew his finger away, threatening to dip it back in, but only grazed the water.

Tigurr seemed to hesitantly take a look at his tail, raising it out of the water. Lo and behold, it was frizzy and stiff.

"Skritch…"

Tigurr let out a low growl as he brushed twisted pieces of his once-silky tail away. He did shed when he was angry; the angrier he got, the more he molted. Skritch laughed proudly.

"So let me get this straight", Megamind said once he recovered from his _shock._ "You can bend all these energy waves to your will and disperse it in water… fly… and even possibly make a sonic boom?"

"Haven't you noticed, Jennifer SLOW-pez?" he laughed dryly.

"How do you know who—"

"And you too, Kitty Hotstuff", he quipped, poking the damp purple skin of his chest.

"Stop calling me—"

"I am not slow", Megamind said staunchly. "With how much you know, that's the last thing I am."

"Well, I did pick up on a kot of your knowledge, and that's why I'm not a full-grown adult and drooling like a baby. In fact… I know some things you have kept hidden in that mind for years." He grinned perversely.

Megamind sank down into the water a little and failed at hiding the lavender garden that had sprouted and flourished across his face.

"Relax, I may be able to keep all that juicy gossip to myself. I'll just have to see what Michigan is like if we ever make it back home…"

"Oh, don't even go there, please. I'm worried enough about Minion—"

"WAIT!" Tigurr exploded, trying to get at least a few words in without being interrupted. "Does… is he a pihrana that talks? Green scales?"

"How do you know?"

"Oh, god…" Tigurr said under his breath as a hand flew to his mouth.

"What?" Megamind demanded.

"Antony… reported that he'd seen Narcissa with that exact fish… threatening him, actually."

Megamind stared at both of them in a stupefied way for a while before diving underwater for some silence and then screaming under there so that only bubbles streamed upwards instead of his anguished voice traveling across the garden.

After he was out of breath he burst to the surface, and his first question was, "How in the name of all that is holy did she get her hands on MINION?"

"Teleportation would be my best guess", Tigurr said solemnly.

"Jesus!" Megamind exclaimed, bracing himself against a nearby rock. "Could things worsen any more?"

"I wouldn't say that if I were you", Tigurr said; "things almost always do around here."

Megamind pounded his fist on the rock three times before letting out a frustrated growl that turned into a concerned face.

"I think I want to kill Narcissa."

"We all do", said Skritch and Tigurr in unison.

"Even though technically I've always been my own minion… and Skritch doesn't have one…"

They had a bit of a tense silence where they simply washed themselves with soapstone in the water, not bothering to look at each other for a while. Megamind was fully shocked. She had managed to kidnap Minion. What would she do next? Turn his whole army of brainbots into a sparking, wiry mess that was barely recognizable anymore? No… she'd have no time. Maybe his little robots had seen Minion spontaneously disappear? Maybe they had warned someone? At the same time, they were probably quite scared. They were not ordinary little cyborgs. They were like dogs. They were worried for the sake of their master, and all alone back at the Lair.

The more Megamind pondered it, the more he had to omit the intense urge to slay Narcissa right here, right now, no questions asked. She'd done so much wrong to him. To everyone. Even though he knew nothing of the worst things she could do. Megan kept lying to him for his own sake, but the aftereffects that came from that action…

Megamind and Tigurr heard a splash and turned to it, finding Skritch tossing his soapstone away. He was clean alright, but had a troublemaking gleam in his eyes of fiery blue.

He darted out of the water and floated up to the rock that divided the aliens from Aidan, then stood on it in a military stance, both hands planted on his thicker hips.

Tigurr looked away.

"Look at me, I'm Narcissa, and I'm going to take over the world!" Skritch mimicked in a high voice that did nothing for his reputation. "I kill people and eat their guts! I kidnap family members and crucify them for ransom! I'll enslave all the world and all the mortals and then when I'm old and wrinkled—"

"Hey Skritch!" Megamind brust out, interrupting the actually quite amusing imitation. He froze with his fist in that air, and his head swiveled to look at Metro City's hero.

"I was on a roll; what is it?"

"You're stark naked and standing on a rock where Eboni is directly in your line of sight. Just so you know."

"The mastermind's got a point", Aidan laughed from behind the newer alien. "And if you don't mind me observing, your butt's a little… large."

"Why, thank you!" Skritch exclaimed. "Means you like it, right?

"Um, _no_, and you are… weird." Skritch dove back into the water.

Everyone was laughing, and it made Megamind feel a little better than he was a few minutes ago. He was worried about Minion, but… if tonight was going to be more fun than normal, he might as well enjoy it.

"Hey Tigurr, I dare you to get up there and make an impression!"

The purple alien swiveled around to face Skritch and shook his head in a frenzy.

"No! No, no, no, you can't make me!"

"It's not like Eboni can see you from this far away, and if she can, she's probably turned her back by now."

"I'd like to see how this turns out…" Megamind thought out loud and crossed his arms smugly as he watched everything go down.

"Come on, tabby cat!" The pale alien began to try to carry the other up from the water to fly him to the rock, and his resistance was useless. Tigurr kicked and yelled and laughed until he was standing on the rock, tail dripping and heavy with water, the house far away but in sight.

"Skritch, I hate you!" He was unable to hide the laughter bubbling up and shoved the alien off the rock so he splashed again, and then he began with his vocals.

"I can imitate cats perfectly, and birds as well."

Then he rode a wisp of courage that had suddenly brushed up against him and did a combination of a purr-and-meow that was directed at none other than the one who had placed him on the rock. To spice that up a little, he gave him an exaggerated smolder exactly like Skritch threw at people whenever he chose.

"Keep going, keep going!" all the guys chanted.

"This is the best we'eve ever seen you!"

And it was. The grin could not be kept off his face.

"Yeah! Sexy pose! Sexy and I know it!" The cat struck a stance that was hilariously provocative and then whistled like a mockingjay. His hips waggled.

"All you need is feathers!" Aidan guffawed. Tigurr tweeted again in harmony with a stray sparrow that had wandered nearby.

"Then what would I be?" He asked in between meows. "A were-catbird? Sounds a bit oxy-MORONIC if you ask me!"

"Would you rather eat the bird?" Skritch asked.

"No! Because then the feathers would lodge in my throat and I would choke and die! Or else I would throw them up and… I would get constipated, or… I don't know what would happen!"

Megamind shook his head, chuckling to himself while everyone was in tears laughing. "You guys are completely crazy…"

Tigurr continued with his wisecracks while he still had the boldness to do them.

"Oh yeah, I'm crazy, I'm crazy, crazy AWESOME."

"No you're not!" Aidan piped up randomly.

"Who protested against King Tigurr? You will be executed!"

And then he dove over the other side of the rock to wrestle with the fireboy; a spectacle that had to be seen. Skritch zipped over easily, gliding past some lily pads, and Megamind clambered over the rock/stage they had used for a better look.

All there was was what looked like a tangle of orange and purple in a foamy blender. The occasional _oof! _or laugh rang out in between. After another minute or two they gave up and came apart panting and grinning. Then Tigurr shrunk back from the rock, obviously having lost the confidence he had not very long ago.

"I think we have time for one more show…" Skritch mused. He kicked at some of the lily pads in the water.

"I'm not doing anything", Megamind and Aidan replied in unison.

The pale blue man smiled devilishly at once. "Good. Because I have one more thing up my sleeve, you guys!"

"This will be disastrous", Tigurr said, rolling his eyes.

"You bet it will be, but at least you and Megs will have to watch, no questions asked. Now, had anyone ever seen me… _dance?_"

Everything was silent again. All stared at Skritch like he was insane.

"I don't think I would want to—"

"Exactly!" Skritch cut Tigurr off."That's why I'm _making_ you two watch. Aidan, go back around the rock and stay there. You're probably too young."

"I'm thirteen…" But he shrank back behind the boulder and resumed scrubbing. He didn't really want to watch anyway.

"So here's the thing: No turning away or eyes closed, or else we all get fried into pastel-colored bacon strips. Got it?"

"You're going to scar us", Megamind muttered.

"That's the point, doidoi! **(LOL A.N.)** To better prepare you for the war by starting with something a little more enlightening and entertaining."

"But you don't even know a fraction of what exactly Narcissa is capable of. You were iterally born yesterday."

Skritch suddenly looked a bit more serious; something way surprising.

"Yeah, I was born yesterday _infused with some of your knowledge._ And for someone who's been around here for a bit more than a week, you know an awful lot. But maybe not to the full potential…"

"No, he does not in the least",Tigurr put in. "I have been here for probably twenty-four years of my life. I have seen a bunch more." The air suddenly went a bit sinister, as if a biting cold breeze had cut through a perfectly pleasant spring picnic. More silence.

"Well! Let's dance then!" Skritch brightened up again, floated out of the water, and struck another pose on the rock. Megamind immediately locked Tigurr's head to face the strange alien, and he whimpered in surprise.

"Hey", he mumbled into his pierced ear, "Would you rather witness him dancing naked or get your perfect eyebrows singed off? Not to mention your goatee. And mine…"

"Um, first choice sounds better", he stuttered.

"Ok then!" Megamind said halfheartedly. "Start… I guess?"

Then he did start. And suddenly the second choice sounded much, _much_ better after all.

* * *

><p>OH EM GEE YOU GUYS, I WAS CRACKING UP WRITING THE LAST PART XD Bath scenes ROCK! Shiriter, did I possibly make you blush? :3 And you too, Mysterious mystery? Reading about your boyfriend flashing himself like so? XD<p>

Skritch is a perv :I I _donut_ know how he got to be like that. I guess he's just a handsome jerk who flirts with everyone just to stir up stuff. And... I kinda regret writing about the dancing part... XDD I BET I JUST SENT YOU A WONDERFUL MENTAL IMAGE... yeah... Scarring... But he would actually have done good if he had his FREAKIN CLOTHES ON.

OK ALL YOU DOIDOIS [XD] next chappy I will try to finish, but it will take a little longer. Shiriter, you keep right on doing awesome with LPS BL! It's a honor you love this story so much! :) Til the finale, peepz!

... Um... did I just actually use that word? XD I USE XD A LOT that's what I use.

OK BYE.


	36. Chapter 36

Hello, my minions.

The time has arrived. Time for the 36th and final chapter of Bleu Leather. Shiriter, bring your bag of popcorn. Mysterious, strap yourself in for the extra-long chapter that will leave you begging for the next part! BE PREPARED! AND ENJOY!

* * *

><p>Chapter 36<p>

They arrived back at the house in mid-afternoon and walked in on the smell of aloe and lavender. The scent was oblivious to three-fourths of them, whom had an image seared right into their brains that was not budging for quite some time. And it was… disturbing.

Tigurr was positively disgusted, and still ranting and raving about the "eye torture" he had just been put through.

"-I mean that… that was dirty dancing! I cannot _believe _you did it in front of _guys_ no less! And I think you were intentionally swaying your hips for those five minutes straight. But—"

"Ok, seriously, shut the heck up, kitty", Skritch finally said, slapping his hand over his jabbering mouth, silencing the purple man. "It was all in fun, and you're acting like I murdered someone."

"FYI, you were about to do worse to me yesterday."

The daggers that shot out of his intense blue eyes almost killed Tigurr, and he shut up once and for all.

"Great! Cleaned up and returned to the house! Now we can go", a voice rang out. The person to whom it belonged to came gracefully bounding down the stairs.

The clothes she worse now breathed absolute authority, unlike before, when they had been a gag. Megan now sported a leather vest, almost like a shell surrounding her chest, securing her vital organs. Underneath was a shirt that was made of light but durable charteruse cotton, and then below was a utility belt like Kaitoia's, Tigurr's, and Eboni's that held her valuable tools. Then that led to faded brown trousers that went to the knee before they were perfectly tucked into boots with a thick black heel and laces that went from the top to the precipice of the flawless pointed toe.

They all realized they wore similar clothing, but there were differentiating characteristics about each, like how Aidan still had his signature trench coat, only harder-armored around his torso.

But then after Megamind was finished observing, a stupidly late thought came to mind.

"Why exactly did we go down to the lake? Or leave the house at all? Annabelle could have just dry-cleaned us all and then made the clothing appear in under a minute."

Megan looked unfazed by this. "She needs to save up her energy, because believe it or not, those spells take a lot of your reserves out if they're used in large numbers."

"But only one water pipe works in here."

"We all worked together to produce water that showered over one person. That's why we needed privacy."

"But you could have gone down to the lake with us", Skritch countered.

"No, we couldn't have, because then you'd be a pervert about it!" Megan exploded. Skritch had shattered her good mood. That was a cocky thing to do around these parts. She held her muderous gaze at him and breathed heavily out of her nose for good measure, like a bull about to charge. Skritch drew back just the merest bit.

"Megan, don't let bother you. You need to keep cool for tonight." Annabelle came down the stairs, following her friends and placing a calming hand on her strong shoulder. She wore Megan's exact costume, except with more teal and gold accents in it, and of course her helm that had been on her head before. The wings on the sides glittered like new, reflecting the objects around her in the metal. Her purplish lips were perfect and supple, and her hair resembling the exact consitency of heavy whipping cream, yet it bounced up and down lightly as she moved.

"God, by the way, how long do you plan on keeping that eyeshadow on? I haven't seen you without it."

Skritch darted off the floor and said in Annabelle's face, "Forever!"

"You'll have to take it off sometime."

"Well, I made a pact with myself. No one sees me without eye makeup if I can help it, and that's that."

"Ha ha, let's see you just try to do that for a few more days, Gothy Face."

"Yeah. Let's_ see._"

"Knock it off!" Megan scolded, pushing the two apart. "He can do what he wants with his face…" In the next few minutes, the other girls and two women came rushing down the stairs clothed in almost identical outfits to everyone else's. Megamind followed Roxanne with his eyes as she came down clothed in the tight vest and boots. They looked good. No, more than good… she looked beautiful in her war outfit.

They met eyes and shared a shy grin.

"Hey aliens", Eboni called out. She stood in front of the three who had just entered and grinned at them, shaking her head. "That was s'me bold stuff y' did back in th' lake. Bu' Skritch? Y' would've kept your audience's attention better if you h'd some clothes on during d'ncing."

"Oh please, it wasn't like some desperate stalker would pop out of the woods and jump me."

Kaitoia paced towards her brother, Vixen in her arms, and handed him his Staff, which he slid safely in the sheath that was attatched to his back. She leaned against him for a moment.

"And that is what happens when we let guys take a bath together in a mermaid lake full of rocks", she muttered in his ear, causing him to laugh.

"Okay! Everyone is gathered, and now we can go", Megan announced. "Move out!"

All the Rebels filed out the front door. Some threw one last glance at the building, missing it slightly, since they all knew they probably wouldn't ever stay inside it together again. It had been their only safe haven for a while. Now was their final night of laying low, their final night of plotting and checking and waiting and watching. Tommorrow there would be tense inactivity until someone made the first move to trigger an all-out battle to the death of one side or the other. Good wins, or evil wins. Mortals fall, or humans remain oblivious to the fact that they themselves thread the immortal realms together all on their own so both races thrive and go about their days, ignorance in bloom.

And now was the time to enjoy these last moments while they could be enjoyed.

Through the overcast, Megamind saw the sun set over the scraggly tree boneyard that was once a lush and fragrant garden before Narcissa had started foreshadowing her wrath. It would be dark night soon; maybe in a couple hours. That would be when the nocturnal creatures reigned.

"Gather in a circle, everyone. Riiiiight… here", Megan instructed. She led everybody over to a patch of particularly gnarled trees that trailed of into the distance with more sordid and twisted boughs, like a mining tunnel with no light.

"Around the tree… and then link together by holding hands."

Tigurr made sure to not wind up next to Skritch and scampered over as close as he could get to Kaitoia, trying not to catch the eye of Megamind, who grasped her other hand. Roxanne, of course, was on his other side. All made a ring around the ugly tree, and then Megan gave out further instructions.

"Now, for the place to open up for us, we need to each confirm we are Rebels and not spies or intruders. For that, we need to extract a thought strand from our heads and gather them all in the tree bark."

Skritch opened an eye. "How'll we do that?"

"In the past, I've always used the Staff, but now that it's linked with Megamind, it'll be his job", Kaitoia explained. She let go of his hand momentarily, and so did Roxane so he could do the task properly, until her drew the stick out from the sheath on his back only to hold it in his hands without a clue what to do.

"Er… Kaitoi—"

"It's simple, Syx. Just concentrate will your whole head, and as soon as you extract some of your thoughts, it'll extract everyone else's if our hands are connected to yours. Quite like a circuit, actually." She paused for a spell. "Everyone ready? Have a thought prepared?"

"Yes", the circle replied at once.

"Alright. Take it away", Kaitoia grinned at Megamind.

He experimentally placed the sphere to his forehead, guessing it might make it easier. Through his closed eyelids, he could tell that the orb was accumulating an icy blue glow that was striked through with forks of wintry white like lightning in a small blizzard.

Megamind thought of something—just something small and sweet, and immediately underwent a sensation of what felt like tiny wires integrated in his temples. It only lasted a second before they left.

He grabbed Roxanne's and Kaitoia's hands in his, and the Staff lifted in the air all on it's own. Spiderwebs of blue light strands burst through the glass orb and two each connected briefly to everyone's temples, where what seemed like their thoughts traveled through the connections until they were meshed together at the top of the sphere; just a little ball of frosty light.

The strands retracted. The Staff fell into Megamind's waiting hands, and what was left was the ball of light hovering in front of his nose for a few seconds before it moved. It darted once around the tree, and then dove into a twisted knothole, where it disappeared.

Then exploded.

Radiance shone through the cracks in the bark, and there was a loud, _skeeeoww!_ And the tree wasn't there any longer. In its place was a rectangular opening in the ground that had a friendly, dim glow coming from inside, and slightly weathered stairs that led down inside in a spiral.

Megan was the first one down, and then the others followed, some eagerly and some hesitantly. Kaitoia sidled up against her brother and Roxanne, and being careful not to trip over Vixen, led them lower into the ground until it seemed to slide shut behind them, leaving a staircase that led up to nowhere. Megamind would worry about getting out later.

"What is this?" he asked, curiousity almost killing him now. He looked up at his sister hopefully.

"You'll see once we get all the way down… and… look."

The smell that greeted them was warm and sweet, like root beer, and to his slight surprise, he heard people talking, laughing; even dancing.

Well, not exactly people. Creatures like the Rebels.

They were all having one big celebration right under here in what looked like a pub with non-alcoholic drinks. Instead of stuff that would drunken them, especially for the younger ones, they all drank either apple cider or root beer like most of the place smelled, and seemed to love every drop. There were some creatures playing darts, or even at pool tables, getting competitive. Some chatted, some disputed, some talked about war, and some were just lounging alone, enjoying their beverage.

"Exclusive underground club-slash-hideout", Roxanne said aloud. "I like it."

"Yep. Since this is the last night before we have to really battle to the bone, we always gather down here to discuss it in person, and have a little fun while we're at it. But all the rebels in here are just a fraction of what the Dissent has accumulated as armies that will help us attack tommorrow. They are in their own places, guarded by gargoyles. Those guys also guard around here, too, in case Narcissa sabotages the place, but she's never discovered it because we move it each year."

"Clever!" Megamind exclaimed. "So far, I'm liking what we have to do here."

"Ho, brother, you have not even seen the half of it yet." She made sure not to go into a sullen undertone to signify that tommorrow was underway, but instead just gave him a sort of light warning. Then she trailed behind the Rebels as they made it past the crowds, who parted for them with glee, clapping as they went by. Some strode by with straight faces. Some smiled. Skritch swaggered. Kaitoia caught up and waved a bit, and then Roxanne, and then-

The entire room seemed to have run out of breath as soon as they saw Megamind, or more specifically, the Staff he had still cradled in his arms. A pool ball clunked into a hole and rolled down on the wood, which was a loud noise against the silence that had suddenly choked everyone.

And then to Megamind's surprise and slight discomfort, almost all got down on one knee, bowing to… _him._ The others that didn't bow looked at him and let their mouths hang agape in wonder. Some got the courage to run up to him and touch his shoulder as if they couldn't believe he was a physical being and not an illusion.

He glanced at his artifact, which had started to glow a bit and pulsate in his palm as if it enjoyed the attention. He glanced all around him with uncertainty at the people and creatures still staring right at him.

"What…"

"You have come to help all of us!" Someone called out from the left side of the room. "I sense that raw power!"

"W-who said that?" Megamind demanded, cursing himself when his voice wavered.

Some of the crowd stepped aside as someone else stepped through, towards the bewildered blue geniuswith the magic stick. As he pushed through the tightly packed audience, he muttered something about how flabbergasted tree sprites could get, and then Megamind had to look up about one more foot just to see the man's face.

He was very tall. Very gangly. A thick carpet of wavy shag hair the color of oil covered nearly his entire face, and what he could see of it were sunken cheekbones, very pale skin, and one of two eyes that was colored like a silver stormcloud. His eyebrows were thin and curved up mischeviously like Skritch's, whom, by the way, also possessed the same sharp and pointed ears. His lips were thin, rosy, and curved up in a proud smile.

The tall man seized Megamind's hand and shook it vigorously, leaving his arm feeling like it would fly off even after he had stopped making it thrash about. With a nervous smile, he hid it behind his back and tried looking the man in the eye that showed behind his hair. He could have sworn he saw a tiny fork of white lightning make a slash across his pupil.

"Stop it, Pekybhus. You're freaking him out", Kaitoia said, half-laughing as she did so.

"Oh, am I?" he asked, though Megamind couldn't tell if he was beign sarcastic or not. "Oh, bother. He'll get used to me. Everyone has. They must." He paused for a while. "Anyhow, I congratulate you, blue man, for stumbling upon our little club we have here. Were it not for someone as powerful as you to join us soon before we fought, we would have had to resort to something so much more difficult."

This time Pekybhus's eyes lit up with sincere gratitude that made Megamind untense ever so slightly. He didn't want to know what anyone would have to do without him, and he was satisfied with his choice. And the irony.

"Dad!" Someone else called from the crowds. "Dad! Who are you talking to? Why is everyone—oh."

Another pushed past everyone to side against Pekybhus. The boy looked at Megamind with wonder, a small "whoa" escaping his grey lips. He looked about fifteen or so, but the odd thing about him was that his head was shaved in a buzz cut right down one half of his scalp, and the other half hung shaggy and gleaming metallic purple in the dim light over one of his turquoise eyes. His ears were even bigger than his father's, and were heavy with piercings.

"Syx, this is Pekybhus's son, Tailor. They got kidnapped together a few years ago, and helped with some previous rebellions that existed before this one. They're elf and tree nymph hybrids, one of the rarest types of land-oriented nature spirits, which appealed to Narcissa, apperently. And—"

"We prefer to call ourselves Pine Elfs, thanks", the tall parent said stiffly. "By the way, Katie, you have quite a set of loose jaws when it comes to this magical sphere. Learn to shut up."

Megamind was about to make an indignant outburst at the elf's brusque statement, but Kaitoia held him back with a rueful expression in her eyes that changed to sarcasm when she faced Peky bhus, muttering an unenthused, "Thanks, I'll remember that…"

"Well!" The gangly elf said after a moment of silence, clapping his skinny hands and rubbing them together. "Welcome, Syx. Welcome indeed. All of you, make yourselves at home and strike up a conversation! Meetings with the three head rebellions in half an hour. In the meantime, why don't you all grab some cider? Root beer?"

"Cider sounds nice", Tigurr piped up quietly.

"Cider it is, then!" Pekybhus announced.

"Tonight is the night, and tomorrow will be the day! Everyone! ENJOY IT!"

The entire pub resounded with ecstatic cheers as the occupants returned to all their activities gleefully, while others still hung around the Rebels, particularly Megamind. He greeted them a little stiffly, as it reminded him of when he had first become a hero and all the fans that came with the duty. All he wanted was to have a private talk with Roxanne for a bit, and talk war with the Rebels if he had to. Later he might warm up to the festivities, but for now he felt rather antisocial.

As he finished up shaking hands with a dryad, he still saw Tailor the Pine Elf looking on at him wistfully.

What was it about him?

* * *

><p>What a wild animal. Complete wild animal. Already, he had made out with a few dozen nature sprites that promised him a kiss if he could catch them, and what did he do? Caught every one of them. Kaitoia had commented that no satyr had ever been able to do that, much less a creature who wasn't natively devoted to nature, such as Skritch. But here he was, kissing a brunette one until she was intoxicated; drunk with how his lips had moved so skillfully against her dainty little mouth, and when he pulled away, he almost made sure to leave a gleaming little strand of saliva between them for effect.<p>

Then they went separate ways and Skritch went off to chase another sprite. How perfectly typical. The jerk.

Megamind rolled his eyes at the post-Addiku alien as he scurried past, intent on catching a maiden with slender legs and laurels in her hair. Not long after they had run by him did the sprite get caught by her thin hips and whirled into the air, only to be drawn into another simmering kiss on Skritch's busy little lips.

He ignored his obnoxious clone and sipped up some more apple cider, which he had requested to be heated up and fizzy. That always made it taste better. He could feel it in his mouth and going down his throat, prickly and sweet and delicious.

Just like Roxanne.

They sat across from each other, Megamind intent on making things a little less tense. What was on his mind now was the deal with the promise they had made in bed a couple nights ago. That if he died, he died. No questions asked. That he deserved to die, since he was one of the most important pawns in this game of gory chess, being the one with the power to shut Narcissa down once and for all. The task intimidated him, and there would be a strong possibility of death, but…

Something didn't seem right with the promise.

Megamind's toxic green eyes looked beseeching. Roxanne noticed the nuance in his expression immediately. In fact, she had the same topic on her mind at the moment.

"Roxanne…"

"The promise."

"Yes. I wanted to talk about that to you. Something doesn't seem… quite right."

Roxanne heard him out.

Megamind sighed through his nose. "The pact was that you would let me die if I was in danger of dying. And I know that seemed appropriate at the time I made the decision, but now I realize that might not be very fair to you. Does it make you feel… I don't know… selfish?"

"I thought you would never ask, Space Boy", Roxanne said with gusto. "That has been bugging me since yesterday. I'm glad you realized. It's been making me feel like I'm taking a victory of living while you get beaten to a pulp, or worse."

Megamind shuddered a little at the thought of getting whipped or grasped in the tentacles of a monster. "To tell you the truth, I've gotten a little more courageous. Before I turned Jhonny into—"

Skritch bolted past again, guzzling down root beer that was crackling with electricity while waving around a pool stick.

"—him, I was petrified at the thought of going into these grave matters like this, with only magic I had learned that I posessed several days ago. Now the thought of dying in battle sickens me. After all, I won't be alone, but I suppose I am crucial in all this after all, aren't I?"

"From what I've picked up, the Earth might as well split in half without you", Roxanne replied. "Not that I'm pinning the weight of it all on your shoulders. You will have help. Depends on how big those rebel armies are if we get to see them tomorrow. Plus, I believe in you. Remember how you were scared of facing Titan and then you abandoned me to go back to your jail cell?"

Megamind inhaled and prepared for a rebuttal, but realized he _had_ abandoned her when he did that. Described it perfectly. He _had_ been terrified. The only thing that made him gather bravery was the fact that Roxanne was tied to the top of a tilting Metro Tower, that Minion had come back for him after all that he'd done to the poor henchfish, and that Titan was his creation. He made him into what was to be a hero, and it was his responsibility to revoke him of the powers if he used them wrongly. Simple as that. Once he had done that, the feeling of being appreciated and doing something right made him officially good and gradually stripped of his villainous insecurities. It was the right thing to do good, and after he had beaten Titan like so…

"I can do anything."

Roxanne grinned. She had been watching the gears in his head turn all this time. If he thought, he didn't take offense. He had gotten good at admitting his mistakes… quietly.

Was it her plan to mak him think like this? To elighten him? If so, then she was… a genius. He admired her for that, for being the smartest person he knew, besides himself of course. He was glad he thought before getting indignant.

"Which means I should strive for both of us… I could never bear to lose you not even in death, even if we followed each other into it. That promise needs to be redone, do we agree?"

"Yes."

"Alright then", Megamind sad, inching a bit closer to Roxanne so his hand was laid across the top of hers. "I promise to keep both of us safe. If we survived Titan, we can survive this. If I die, you die soon as well. You don't have to go through that, and I don't want this connection we have to feel like a burden because I'm an alien." His eyes had become even more rounded and vulnerable as he spoke, which started to jab at Roxanne's heart with their intensity. She couldn't say no. She didn't even want to. Unlike she had expected, she was absolutely fine with the connection.

She was currently in he process of unearthing new feelings for this brilliant alien.

"It's not a burden. In fact, it makes me feel really… special. I promise."

Before either of them knew what they were doing, Megamind's lips suddenly met hers in a gentle, loving kiss so full of tenderness it made their pulses quicken a little. She tasted of the cider, sugary and fizzy and sweet. It made him deepen the kiss just a little. That cider was so good…

A booming voice jolted him apart from his girlfriend and sent a shudder up his vertebrae.

"Well! I didn't know you had a girlfriend! You could have introduced me to her!"

Pekybhus now stood by Roxanne with a bony arm draped around her shoulders. That thing was long. It reached all the way to her leg. She hastily pushed it away and eyed Megamind ruefully.

"I'm Roxanne Ritchi. Nice to meet you…"

The elf took a closer look at the reporter, inspecting her face closely so she got a whiff of his breath that smelled of a Christmas tree. "Why, it's a human! A mere mortal. Congrats on being the first one to join this rebellion. I wonder why Narcissa kidnapped—"

Pekybhus suddenly stopped in midsentence as a seldom look of fright crossed his tight face. Whoops. His mouth had slipped. He knew the carnal dangers of Narcissa like any other who had been around long enough to know her.

"…A-anyhow, I hope your lady friend here has gotten used to all the… surprises that lurk around here. You really have to be desensitized to…"

The tall elf's attention seemed to be drifting away fast. "Um… you know, the meetings are starting. You better gather around in the Rebel's room. Especially you, um… Syx, is it? Yes. Both of you, scoot along."

Megamind and Roxanne hopped out of their barstools and looked to where the others were going. Many of the creatures were filing into separate rooms while some remained outisde, but most went in the private rooms. The two soon caught up with Tigurr with a cider mug in hand, who looked over at them and motioned for them to get inside.

Megamind's hand brushed against Roxanne's as they walked inside, silently saying, _Don't you wish the elf hadn't killed the moment?_ Roxanne spoke back a _yeah_ with her eyes. They broke off and looked at the room they were in.

It was compact, but spacious at the same time. The ceilings were low, and a few lamps emanated soft yellow light, casting eerie shadowws on the wooden floor. There were bunkers that lined the walls in one section of the room, and in the other section was a small desk with an oil lamp. Accompanying it were several chairs.

Skritch scurried up one of the beds and settled there, looking over everyone else. Tigurr sat in a wooden chair, clutching his mug and taking sips from it. Soon, everyone was seated and then conversation began.

"Okay", Megan begane darkly. "I know you're all having a great time, but there are matters that need to be discussed, as you all know. This night that comes before we battled head-to-head has been traditional for a century. And as always, we have a little bit of fun, but we can't go without one more session of planning the final plans if we're heading out to do the dirty work tommorow. Just giving things a once-over. Never can be too safe, really."

Eckere leaned back in an armchair, guzzling down her fifth mug of root beer with gusto.

"Hollld… on…" she said between gulps.

She slammed the mug down on the desk beside her. "Now talk."

"Okay. I know the Dissent and the Retaliation are in line. I spent all day going over every detail. Now I just need to have a mental checklist in order." She pointed over to Kaitoia.

"Katie! Got your nunchakus prepped, and remember your katana skills too?"

"Of course. To forget would be impossible."

"You never told me you knew how to use a katana", Megamind said flatly.

"Learn something new every day."

"Skritch and Tigurr? Have enough endurance to fight? This is the real deal we're talking about here, and Tigurr's just been the messenger here… plus Skritch was born yesterday."

"We'll be fine", the aliens replied in unison. "Skritch has his powers, and I'm getting past that cowardly state of mind I had when I was terrified. Controlling these instincts is not that hard!" Tigurr said, and after taking another slurp of cider, grinned a cute grin.

"Great. Peachy. Eboni and Aidan, no more undercover little expeditions that put others in danger, even if it's for an important cause. One more time without warning, and you'll have to regain my trust. Clear?"

"Swear on the symbol on my shirt", Aidan said.

" 'f course, Meg", Eboni mumbled.

"And then Eckere and Annabelle. Even though Eckere is a little glitchy, you two are the ones I trust the most, though I am not playing favorites. Eckere will help issue all the weapons we need, in addition to other creatures that will assist in that. Annabelle, grab your diary from the storage space of yours tomorrow, and we'll be suited for success."

Annabelle forced a smile, which was almost painful as a steaming hunk of metal dropped through her stomach. She couldn't confess. Not now. Maybe she could wait… sneak out from battle… steal the diary away from Narcissa. Something. Something desperate that would make everyone forgive her for all the wrong she'd done. Maybe they wouldn't, but maybe there was some hope.

"Vixen, you're our slick little spy. Still as agile as ever? Good with a machete, probably even better than Jhonny?"

Vixen hopped down from Kaitoia's lap with a cocky sneer. "The jewel-encrusted one I fancy the most. I wish Katie had an identical one… but they are awfully hard to craft, I know." The cat propped herself against her mistress's calf and sighed. Kaitoia petted the red fur on her head.

"And last of all, Megamind", Megan said, trying not to let her tone go too grave. "You need as much energy and mojo as you can muster for tomorrow. The war may last days or weeks, even. The shortest one we've ever had is one that lasted one day. You up to it?"

Instead of feeling belittled by it all, his eyes returned with their familiar heroic glimmer that hadn't been seen for quite a while with how much he'd been wilting under pressure. The fact that Minion was in Narcissa's clutches, and that he'd be battling in full-combat mode no sooner than tomorrow… he would find a way to cope with that and save Minion while he was at it. He just didn't need to think about how terrifying and gruesome it would turn.

"Yes. I'll do what I can. Sordid attitudes have been encumbering me for almost all the time I've been here."

"Yes, I know", Annabelle mused. "Even the most cheerful person can turn gloomy if they enter these parts. It's what Narcissa uses to discourage powerful magic."

"Funny tactic, but that won't be working on me anymore", Megamind said, shaking a finger mischeviously. "Not if I can help it. Even if I have to stick on a fake smile, I'll do it."

Megan became slightly less stiff and grinned at her valuable blue alien. " 'Atta boy."

They were about to end the once-over with one more small conversation concerning how everyone's magic was holding up, but suddenly Eboni cringed a bit when she felt her communicator vibrate in her belt. All eyes turned on her as she drew it out, the device shaking in her hand.

"Prob'ly s'mething I should take m'self", she declared. She lef with a flourish out of the room and into somewhere separate where the others would be out of earshot. Where everyone would be out of earshot. The vampire left swiftly: almost too swiftly.

Megamind noticed this. How many times she had done it.

"Anyway, as I was about to say, and I think we should tell Eboni when she returns—"

"Megan?" Megamind cut in. "I think I'll go out and get some more cider for Tigurr. He's running empty. Want more, cat?"

"What are you talking about? My mug is half—"

Megamind's arm jutted out and knocked the mug out of his hands, sending it flying to the ground with a loud clatter.

"—full."

Megamind tried not to let the stunned silence in the room spread too much. "I'll get you a new mug right away. I know how yummy that stuff is." He masked his urgency with a considerated grin and hurried out the door, shutting it behind him.

He was once again exposed to the milling crowds and people having dartboard contests, a few stragglers occasionally coming up to him to wave hello. He waved back, but with a bitter smile, since he had an increasing suspision about something he could not place.

Was it about Eboni?

What he wanted to know was why she kept dashing off whenever she received a call. She couldn't just answer it in front of everyone? What was the harm if the was calling another rebel?

As he weaved in and out of the chatting creatures, he glimpsed a snatch of tousled black-and-silver hair disappear as soon as it came into view, behind a female satyr. He followed it at once, dodging the chatterbox Pekybhus and his son while he was at it.

Megamind went on following Eboni until they reached an unfamiliar corridor where the people diminished and cold air began. Almost as if the whole place were unfinished. Her footfalls became easier to hear.

Soon they were the only two in the vicinity. Megamind knew one little slip could easily give him away to what he was trying to observe. He evolved into tiptoeing until that was too risky,too, and came to the conclusion that she had to come into the desired room sooner or later.

Eboni veered off into another passage. Megamind braced himself on a wall that was more dirt than wood. These parts were most definitely incomplete. From that point on, the ground was solid packed earth.

A few more strides, and he heard a door slam at last. Then he heard talking.

He heard two voices, both female.

One voice…

One… voice…

Megamind bit back a howl. He was going in to investigate, like it or not.

As he paced softly around the wall and into the dark hall, the unfamiliar voice became louder and suddenly much easier to identify.

So much…

_Eeeeeasier._

Megamind's forehead had broken out in a cold sweat once he stood face to face with the door. His hands felt sticky inside his gloves. He could hardly bring his muscles, any cell in his body to grasp the doorknob and open the door.

The Staff seemed as petrified into silence as he was. The purple smoke was dissolving into the wood of the stick, leaving a gaping, hollow glass orb with ternished golden snakes coiling around it.

His arm quaked in his terror as he made a desperate grab for the round knob, fearing it would slip through his fingers with how humid it was in the pelted gloves. His eye twitched when he heard… he heard…

_Good god._

"Eboni, you have done well. I'll make sure you get a round with speaking from this manuscript, this… diary. The cloudsprite's journal. Amazing."

He wouldn't succumb with swinging the door open as his fear changed to rage. Rage that bubbled… boiled dangerously.. was about to breach…

The surface.

All on its own, the Staff leapt out of his rattling hand and spun in the air gracefully before giving off an intense, hot glow from its core, smoke reforming into an ugly face, and then the door was blasted to splinters as he stood before the vampire herself, litte miss Goody-Two-Boots. The last shred of wood bounced at her frozen feet. He skin was almost translucent with how much she had paled with utter shock as she stood in a twisted, immobile pose so still she looked no different than an alarmed, timorous stone statue created by Medusa the gorgon.

The eyes of poison green shrunk as the image from her communicator gave an outraged gasp, and shimmered away into nothing but choking silence.

Nar…

Ciss…

A.

It clattered to the ground.

Megamind almost blacked out.

What did we have here?

"A… dirty… traitor…"

Eboni did nothing else but let her last little guttural scream slip past her throat.

"Victorian."

_So the vampire failed at hiding her secret. _

_The alien has just found out. _

_Disbelieveing eyes witnessing the worst. _

_She'll be shunned away soon, without doubt. _

_From this point things spiraled downward _

_Into a seething morass of tragedy. _

_I should know, for I have seen it. _

_Bodies turning raggedy. _

_Evil at its best _

_Consuming the whole West _

_Heroes dying _

_Twisted screams flying _

_Who will have the last dying breath? _

_Do you know?_

_Finis_

* * *

><p>We... are... done.<p>

YES! AFTER TEN LONG MONTHS! AND IT'S NOT EVEN OVER! *EYE TWITCH* my nephew is crying for real right now. HEHE. HE. HE...

But I will not be posting this story as complete just yet. I'm currently working surgery on the beginning chapters, which need MAJOR revision. I think the crappy writing there is what turned people off to this story. Plus, the poem at the end was an afterthought, and I added one to the start as well, which means I will repost some chapters with corrected spelling and better words.

Dining Tables Tacked to Ferris Wheels should be coming in about two weeks. Until then...

Hope you enjoyed :)

(P.S. I have a short little post-BL story I'm writing to tide you guys over because I could not get the concept outta my head XD Ta! :D)


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